Autumn Ministry School part 4
Continuing our series on our Autumn Ministry School, Jodie tells us about the Prophecy Group.
Prophecy Group
Over the last six weeks a group of 14 have been meeting weekly to discover more about the gift of prophecy and how to grow in the gift. Each week we have delved into a subject, stepped out in actively practising and shared our experiences together.
It has been great fun and we thought it would be good to share more about what the course involves…
In 1 Corinthians 14 verse 1 we read: Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives – especially the ability to prophesy.
Spiritual Gifts
During the course we considered our identity in Christ and that gifts of the Holy Spirit are not based on our performance but are given to us freely by the Holy Spirit. We explored the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit in receiving these gifts and had opportunity to pray for each other.
There was some teaching on what the Bible says the gift of prophecy is and we also considered it’s purpose for today. We looked at the different ways in which the Holy Spirit speaks to us and shared our experiences of how the gift of prophecy works in our lives. We heard stories of people’s experience of hearing from God, how they then share what they have heard and the impact that it is having on those around them.
Asking and listening
As you can see, we covered quite a lot and along with all this, each week we had opportunity to pray and to ask the Holy Spirit for specific prophetic words for each other. We also asked for words for the wider church context that we find ourselves in. We were challenged to continually step out in faith by asking the Holy Spirit to speak to us, listening to what He might be saying and then sharing it with other people.
The aim of the course was to unpack some of what the gift of prophecy is, to dismantle some of the myths around prophecy, to explore how and why we use it and to give opportunity to practise. Each week everybody had an opportunity to do an exercise to help them practise using the gift of prophecy.
It was great fun and so encouraging to see the Holy Spirit stir people to eagerly desire more of Him in their lives.
Thank you Jodie
