The apostle Paul accentuated his call to love with two surprising encouragements: “earnestly desire the higher gifts” and “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy” (1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1).
Paul listed prophecy as the second most important of the gifts of the Spirit. We, however, grew up thinking that prophecy was something that existed in the past, and has no contemporary significance. This matter is central to spiritual growth and yet most of us know nothing about it. Nevertheless, the matter of its significance remains – God wants us to desire all of his gifts, not to choke our selfishness, but to selflessly strengthen others — “so that the church may be built up” (1 Corinthians 14:5).
Spiritual gifts are not for our personal benefit but for the greater glory of Christ as we pursue love through serving one another. Love is the aim of spiritual gifts. If we neglect any particular spiritual gift, if we do not earnestly desire and pursue them, we will neglect some aspect of love and so fail to glorify Christ.
We need the Spirit’s empowerment to strengthen the saints and see unsaved people “delivered . . . from the domain of darkness and transferred . . . to the kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son” (Colossians 1:13).
All creation, the church principally, continues to and must evolve and the spiritual gifts, prophecy most especially, are always a challenge to “business as usual.”
1 Corinthians 12:7, 11, 31 “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other… It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have… So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.”
