Pursuing Spiritual Gifts: Prophecy, Tongues, and the Building Up of the Church

Setting the Context

We're working through 1 Corinthians, Paul's letter to a church facing serious challenges about 20 years after Jesus' resurrection. Over the last four weeks, we've been considering corporate worship—including issues like head coverings, the Lord's Supper, and spiritual gifts. Today marks the final week of that section, focusing specifically on prophecy and speaking in tongues.

For many in contemporary London, these topics can sound strange, even off-putting. Prophecy might conjure images of magic books or fortune-telling. Speaking in tongues might sound like incomprehensible babble. And there's truth to this concern: these gifts have sometimes been misused in churches. But when used well, they are enormously valuable.

A Personal Word on Prophecy's Power

Let me share from my own life why I'm passionate about this. In my early twenties, while leading a training course for churches, I attended a pastor's gathering where a gifted prophetic speaker was at work. He gave three words that profoundly affected me.

First, he spoke to another pastor about a "Macedonian call"—that he would move west. Unknown to the prophet, this man had already received that same word ten days earlier. He moved his entire family to Oxford, and he's still there today.

Second, this prophet spoke to another man, saying, "I believe God says you've been disappointed romantically recently." In a room of pastors, this was risky—but the man broke down in tears. His engagement had just ended the previous summer.

Then he turned to me. He said, "I can see manuscripts. I see that an editor will approach you. You're going to write books, train and disciple a generation in teaching and truth." He'd never met me before. What he didn't know was that that very morning I had received an email from an editor saying, "We'd love to take this further. Let's consider producing this book."

In that moment, two things happened. First, I knew I should write books—and I have. But second, I thought: God knows what's in my inbox. If that email had been something darker—an inappropriate relationship, a shady deal—God would know that too. It gave me a deep fear of the Lord, a sense that God is here. God knows. God speaks through people.

I could share more: my call to pastoral ministry came through a young prophetic word; my youngest son, Samuel, exists because of a prophetic word about Hannah's prayer that was confirmed by a dream. I literally have books, church ministry, and children that have shaped my entire life because of prophecy. When used well, this gift is precious beyond measure.

Four Things Paul Wants Us to Pursue

This chapter is long, so let me break it into four movements based on what Paul urges us to pursue:

1. Pursue prophecy
2. Pursue building up (edification)
3. Pursue worship (encounters with God)
4. Pursue order

Part One: Pursue Prophecy

Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

Context matters here. The Corinthian church had developed a hierarchy of gifts, with speaking in tongues prized as almost the ultimate sign of spirituality. This is still true in many Pentecostal movements today. Paul has already addressed this in chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12 reminds them: we're a body, interdependent, not individuals. Chapter 13 (the love chapter) establishes that love, not tongues or prophecy or any single gift, is the real test of the Spirit's work.

Given all that, we might expect Paul to say: "Dial it down. Cool off on the tongues and prophecy." But he does the opposite. He opens chapter 14 with a command: Earnestly desire spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. The Greek word is zeloute—be zealous, pursue passionately, seek after.

This is crucial for us as a charismatic church. When the New Testament gives a direct instruction to believers, we need a very good reason to dismiss it. Paul isn't saying, "Corinthians, you prophesy, but no one else." He's addressing Christians broadly. And he has already told us when these gifts will cease: not soon, but when Christ returns and we see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:8-10). In the meantime, these gifts are given to edify and strengthen us and help us grow into Christ's likeness.

Note Paul's caution: we prophesy "in part." We don't know everything. Every prophetic word must be weighed against Scripture. Prophecy is never above the Bible; it's always beneath it. But having weighed it, we affirm: God speaks prophetically to His people, and that's a gift we should eagerly desire.

Part Two: Pursue Building Up

For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God. No one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation. (1 Corinthians 14:2-3)

The key verb throughout this section is to build up—to edify, strengthen, construct, fortify. Paul establishes a clear contrast:

• Speaking in tongues (without interpretation) builds up the individual speaker.
• Prophecy builds up the church.

The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. (1 Corinthians 14:4)

Paul makes clear: he's not anti-tongues. He says, "I want you all to speak in tongues." In fact, he boasts, "I speak in tongues more than all of you." But in a corporate worship setting, if the goal is building up the body, prophecy is preferable because people understand it.

Unless someone interprets so that the church may be built up. (1 Corinthians 14:5)

Tongues can be used corporately—if interpreted. But uninterpreted tongues in a meeting benefit no one but the speaker.

Paul then uses vivid imagery:

If even lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp don't give distinct notes, how will anyone know what's being played? And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? (1 Corinthians 14:7-8)

Imagine a bugler trying to signal troops to battle, but the notes are muddled and indistinct. The soldiers won't know what to do. Similarly:

If you with your tongue utter speech that is not intelligible, how will anyone know what's said? You'll be speaking into the air. (1 Corinthians 14:9)

Paul is blunt: uninterpreted tongues in a group setting are just babble. So his counsel is:

Since you're eager for manifestations of the spirit, strive to excel in building up the church. (1 Corinthians 14:12)

If you want to manifest the Spirit's power, use gifts that build the body—especially prophecy, which people can understand.

Part Three: Pursue Worship

Therefore, one who speaks in a tongue should pray for the power to interpret. (1 Corinthians 14:13)

Now Paul shifts focus slightly. It's not just about building up the church intellectually; it's about drawing people into worship and encounter with God.

If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So, what am I to do? I'll pray with my spirit, but I'll pray with my mind also. I'll sing praise with my spirit, but I'll sing with my mind also. (1 Corinthians 14:14-15)

This is interesting. Paul acknowledges that speaking in tongues has a real spiritual benefit in private prayer. But in corporate worship:

If you give thanks with your spirit, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say amen to your Thanksgiving when he doesn't know what you're saying? (1 Corinthians 14:16)

When we worship, we want others to join us. We want them to understand and say "Amen!" We want them to encounter God too. So Paul sets a radical priority:

In church, I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue. (1 Corinthians 14:19)

Five clear, meaningful words—"Christ died for your sins"—does far more good than ten thousand incomprehensible syllables.

Don't be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. (1 Corinthians 14:20)

Now comes a complex but important passage. Paul quotes Isaiah:

By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people and even then they won't listen to me. (1 Corinthians 14:21)

In the Old Testament, Israel experienced judgment partly through hearing foreign languages—a sign they'd been conquered or displaced. So Paul draws a distinction:

Tongues are a sign not for believers, but for unbelievers. While prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers, but for believers. (1 Corinthians 14:22)

What does this mean? Tongues function as a sign of judgment (you don't understand; you're on the outside). Prophecy, by contrast, invites understanding and belief.

Paul then paints two scenarios:

If the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues and outsiders or unbelievers enter, won't they say you're out of your minds? (1 Corinthians 14:23)

Someone walks into a meeting where everyone's shouting in languages no one understands. Their conclusion? "These people are mad."

But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he's convicted by all. He's called to account by all. The secrets of his heart are disclosed and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you. (1 Corinthians 14:24-25)

But if prophecy is spoken—words people understand, words that speak to the human condition—an unbeliever is convicted. The hidden things of their heart are laid bare. They encounter the living God and fall down in worship. They say, "God is really here."

So the point is clear: to draw people into worship, speak in languages they understand. Use prophecy. Make the gospel clear. Let people encounter the living God.

Part Four: Pursue Order

What then, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each one has a hymn, lesson revelation tongue or interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Corinthians 14:26)

The Corinthian meetings sound chaotic: everyone wanting to contribute at once, speaking in tongues, prophesying, constant back-and-forth. Paul says this must change. God is not a God of confusion, but of peace.

He sets three specific rules:

Rule One: Tongue speakers must be silent if there's no interpreter.

If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. But if there's no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. (1 Corinthians 14:27-28)

No more uninterpreted tongues filling the air. If no one can translate, be silent.

Rule Two: Prophets must be silent when others are speaking, so the church can discern.

Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what's said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent, for you can all prophesy one by one so that all may learn and be encouraged. (1 Corinthians 14:29-31)

Don't treat prophetic gifting as an uncontrollable compulsion. The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet. You can choose to wait your turn.

The spirits of prophets are subject to prophets. For God's not a god of confusion, but of peace. (1 Corinthians 14:32-33)

Rule Three: Wives should not interrupt their husbands' prophesying.

As in all the churches of the saints, the women should keep silent in the churches, for they're not permitted to speak, but should be in submission as the law also says. If there's anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it's shameful for a woman to speak in church. (1 Corinthians 14:34-35)

This one seems harsh, and context is crucial. Just a few chapters earlier (chapter 11), Paul explicitly taught women how to pray and prophesy in meetings—including what head coverings they should wear. So Paul cannot mean that women are never to speak in church. Rather, the problem seems specific: married women are interrupting, heckling, or trying to undermine their husbands during prophecy, causing chaos. Paul's instruction is: don't do that. Wait and ask at home.

In each case—tongues without interpretation, prophets speaking over each other, wives interrupting—Paul identifies groups who, for this particular moment, need to remain quiet to preserve order.

Paul then drives home the authority of these instructions:

Or was it from you that the word of God came? Are you the only ones that it has reached? If anyone thinks he's a prophet or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I'm writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone doesn't recognize this, he's not recognized. (1 Corinthians 14:36-37)

In other words: I'm not offering suggestions. This is what God wants from you. Chaotic, incomprehensible meetings do not glorify God. They obscure the gospel.

Conclusion: The Summary

Paul closes with a concise summary:

So, my brothers and sisters, earnestly desire to prophesy, and don't forbid speaking in tongues, but all things should be done decently and in order. (1 Corinthians 14:39-40)

In the language of this sermon:

• Pursue prophecy. God is alive. Jesus is alive. The Spirit is alive. He speaks to and through His church.
• Pursue building up. Use gifts that strengthen the body.
• Pursue worship. Speak so that believers say "Amen" and unbelievers encounter the living God.
• Pursue order. Let everything be done decently and in order, so that the gospel is clear and God is glorified.

A Final Story

I began with stories from my own life. Let me finish with one from someone else—Charles Spurgeon, the Victorian pastor who oversaw the planting of what is now King's Church London, back in the late 19th century.

Spurgeon tells of a shoemaker who came into one of his services. In terms we'd use today, Spurgeon prophesied over him. Here's what the shoemaker later wrote:

Mr. Spurgeon looked at me as if he knew me. And in his sermon, he pointed to me and he told the congregation that I was a shoemaker, and that I kept my shop open on Sundays. And I did so. I shouldn't have minded that, but he also said that I took 9 pence the Sunday before, and that there was 4 pence profit out of it. I did take 9 pence that day, and 4 pence was just the profit, but how he should know that, I cannot tell. Then it struck me that it was God who had spoken to my soul through him. So, I shut up my shop the next Sunday. At first, I was afraid to go again to hear him, lest he should tell the people more about me. But afterwards, I went, and the Lord met with me, and saved my soul.

That shoemaker encountered the living God through a prophetic word. That is why we pursue prophecy.