Speaker 1So he knows that when you listen to your mom and your dad's advice, and you don't have to follow it, but you listen differently to your mom and dad than you do to anyone else. Why? Because you're giving them honor.
And so this morning, as they come into us, I would ask that we would honor them, and that we would put weight to their words, and we will consider their words heavily and not just discard them, not just throw them up. Because the very next word says, do not despise prophecy. I think sometimes we can despise prophecy. We can nudge it and reject it. We can put it on the side. But I think the opposite of that is, let's honor it. Let's honor it as it comes.
Now there's two giftings. There's the gift of prophecy in 1 Corinthians 12 and then 1 Corinthians 14, and then there's the office of the prophets received in Ephesians 4. And I think we receive the two differently. And so this is something of the development of our thoughts that has come. It says in Ephesians that the church is more of the formation of the apostles and the prophets, and so as we allow prophetic gifts to come into us, I think Andrew, and what Andrew has explained to us is there's going to be a greater cooperation between the prophetic and apostolic.
The prophetic can see. The prophetic can call out. The prophetic can recognize. The prophetic can see in the future. The prophetic can encourage, the prophetic can cheer up, and the prophet bring all those things into us. They speak it over us, but they don't control the steering wheel, so they influence us, but they do not take control of the steering wheel.
And so I think as we're moving forward, as Andrew was explaining to me earlier, so this is like, practically, like, sometimes I'm concerned about obligation, and I'm thinking and strategizing, looking at the stats, and I'm praying and trusting for revelation. And then I realized, well, I've got the full package as I aspire. Funny move, I said, well, I'm thinking this, this career, this won't keep praying. Tell me what the Lord says. And I tell you, it took so much burden off me, but it also brought so much clarity and direction, because the Lord speaks into the situation.
And then you've got, you know, everybody must be in the service, I told you, know, this is right. And so now I think that's what Andrew said to us, is that there's something more of the translocal team has been raised up, raising up the apostles being very strongly in our foundations. The prophetic is being raised up into a newer level of, I'm going to use the word government, but only everyone. It's a working together of the giftings, is a better representation of Christ, just like in the local way, where the gifts work together with better representation of Christ, and also in the translocal, where the teams work together better, there's a better representation of Christ, and it's also the evangelism within us.
And so what I've seen happening is this raising of the crossover within us. And I think that's what this morning, what we're pioneering is, is like we're saying exactly what this looks like, but we won't give them the freedom to, in the faith that the Lord has given them, to prophesy. And then the next verse is it's our responsibility to test, but test everything and hold fast to what is good. And so they prophesy and we test. And how do we test? Just quickly, we test with Scripture. We test with internal business. We test with commun. Team leaders, friends and fellows, we test with the call that we receive, and we test with the context that we are within, so that each one of those is a point that can be expanded upon it to be this building today.
So just one thing that I want to say is, as we add forward, as Janet and Prof and Bill prophesy this morning, do not apply the words. The heart is deceitful above all else. Do not take your word and say, this is for me for now, especially as they're calling forth things within us. Because this can be in you for now, and it can be in 10 years' time, and if you want to apply now, that's when we end up in, that's where we end up in disunity. That's where we end up in. But did God say? What did God want say? Because that prophecy is three-dimensional or four-dimensional, because we live in three dimensions and we move forward. Prophecy has a Bible, seven, Corinthians, 13, that we no importance of God. Can give you a perspective on the timeline from the front, from the back, from the top, from the side, and if you're not interpreting the tense right,