“For prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” II Peter 1:21
The nine manifestations, or gifts, of the Holy Spirit are for us today. They are given to reveal God’s love, demonstrate God’s ability, and proclaim God’s message. To help learn them, we separate them into three categories – Revelation, Power, and Proclamation. The proclamation gifts are prophecy, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues.
Remember that God is a spirit and He often expresses Himself through spiritual means. The Holy Spirit is a spirit. You are a spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are experienced through our heart, our spirit. A person can be a believer but not be spiritually aware. Natural matters are known through our intellect and our five senses. Spiritual things are understood through our spirit. To move with the Holy Spirit, we must look to our heart.
PROPHECY
Prophecy is a message from God. God speaks to us in our heart, but not in the way I would speak to you. I would speak to you with sound from my mouth. You would hear those sounds with your physical ears. Spiritually, God’s message is given as a knowing that is dropped in our spirit. That knowing can come in the form of words, very clear and distinct words. God speaks to us individually, but He also can chose to give a message through a person to give to a group.
TONGUES & INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES
These two gifts are to always be used together when they are given as a public message. Together they are a message from God, similar to prophecy. Tongues is a term used to describe speaking in an unknown language, a supernatural ability given by the Holy Spirit. Obviously God uses this ability to get beyond our soul and straight to our spirit. Tongues is an ability we use on a person level to pray; otherwise known as praying in the spirit. However, there is also a public use where God gives a definite start and finish to a message of tongues. In a public setting, God will always provide the interpretation, either through the same person who gave the message in tongues, or through another person. This is a sign to an unbeliever that God is speaking to us.
What we have to know is that God deeply loves people and wants to be known by them for who He is. When we move with the Holy Spirit and do things no one could do on their own, we hope people recognize God.
Application: We must obey God in order for God to accomplish His will. There is someone else on the other side of our obedience.