In our Tour of 1 Corinthians, we continued a conversation on tongues (first part of the chapter) but mostly centered on prophecy toward the latter parts of the chapter.   

One of the biggest take-a-ways was the following synopsis of 1 Corinthians 14:
When you are in a group, what you do in the group needs to benefit the group!    

Pastor Phil tackled defining prophecy and landed on the following: Words from God = prophecy. This rather wide definition help understand how God works in this time in a variety of ways.    

We tend to think of prophecy as 1) Future telling (which is the case some of the time),  2) a clear message starting with "Thus saith the Lord".... (which God can do) or 3) Forth telling -- putting God's truth forth.   When we look at those more closely, they are all facets of words from God. 

God is not adding information to the Bible, yet God is a relational God who is interacting with His people.  In this time, He uses His people to share His messages in addition to His Written Word. He uses people who are His, to communicate what He wants! He is the Head and we are the Body!    

We see this practically in verse 29 where two or three of those with a message (prophets) should share.  And beyond that, we see Paul instructing the Corinthians to weigh carefully what was being said in their times together...because Paul assumed that sometimes it would be wrong!   

Prophets didn't get stoned in the New Testament for being wrong like their Old Testament colleagues did. Instead, it seems that since God is giving messages, he wants it to come to us in a format we can understand --from other people He loves!

Lets pursue the gift of speaking God's words! Prophesying!