Edified

 

DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

EDIFIED

1 Cor 14:13-17

13 For this reason anyone who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret what he says. 14 For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. 15 So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. 16 If you are praising God with your spirit, how can one who finds himself among those who do not understand say "Amen" to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying? 17 You may be giving thanks well enough, but the other man is not edified.

NIV

We are going to get far more instructions regarding these gifts, especially this gift of tongues and interpretation. But what we should notice first is what occurs when the Spirit manifests His gift of tongues through someone. We have witnessed this occurrence of speaking in a worship service. Normally, the people in whom this gift was manifested spoke out and then shut up and everyone was waiting and waiting to hear someone used to interpret. These instructions were simply either forgotten or grossly ignored. We should also note there are no set parameters as to when the Spirit will stop manifesting His gifts, other than set by God as in the last day. Nevertheless, these instructions are clear enough that we should be able to understand them. When the Spirit manifests His gift of tongues through an individual, that person should pray, should ask the Spirit to manifest the interpretation as well, so the church will be edified, built up. There is something else here that is also good to understand. As it has already been said, tongues is man talking to God, while prophecy is God talking to man. So then, what is said here is that the manifestation of tongues is indeed always man either praying, singing, or giving thanks to God, in the Spirit and, through the Spirit. Therefore, whoever the Spirit uses to interpret, hopefully, the same person He used to speak in tongues, the interpretation needs to be what that man prayed, sang, or thanked God for. Then all the church would be built up as the Spirits prayer, song, or thanksgiving would always be the most beautiful words we will ever hear. Again, it is clear that all which is done through the Spirit will not edify an individual, but He will first edify God, and also edify or build up the whole church. What this also tells us, is that we should never refuse to acknowledge the working of the Spirit as He manifests His gifts when and through whom He determines. Yet, it seems that all this, all the gifts are in the hands of denominational bias, or the hands or minds of man, that man has decided for the Spirit as to when, where and, even if He may work in people. When this occurs, when man decides, it would seem to us, that neither God nor the church would be edified. So then the lesson we must learn is to always be ready, always yield to the work of the Spirit and then both God and the church will be edified.