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Your
Weekly I-Mail Vol. 31
May 4, 2006
But Moses said
to him, "Are you jealous for my sake?
Would that all the LORD'S
people were prophets,
That the LORD would put His Spirit upon them."
 Numbers
11:29
T his past Sunday we
examined how God spoke directly to Moses in seclusion of the Tent of
Meeting (Numbers
7:89) . Similarly, if we want to
hear God , we must also seek Him in a quiet place apart from
the pressures of the world around us. That we can encounter God today
personally as Moses did at the "tent of meeting" is evident throughout the
New Testament (i.e., see Hebrews 10:19). It was also prophesied by Moses himself.
According to the opening scripture
to this I-Mail (Numbers 11:29), Moses didn't want to
limit the intimacy He was having with God to himself.
He desired that one day all of God's
people would be able to hear and speak His word as he did. The
context of Moses statement was Joshua's questioning the exercise of the
prophetic gift by the seventy elders of Israel (Numbers
11:24-25) . Moses told Joshua that his leadership was not
threatened by the seventy hearing God and prophesying. As a matter
of fact, Moses indicated that
the outpouring of God's Spirit upon them of at the Tent of
Meeting was just a foretaste of what He wanted.
The Spirit upon the seventy was an Old Testament picture
of the future New Testament Church in action (compare with I
Cor. 14:29-31). Moses expressed desire for the
"prophet-hood of all believers" was itself a prophecy to be
fulfilled today through you and me! Here
is what the Lord told Moses about the coming outpouring of His Spirit upon
the seventy:
"Gather for Me
seventy men from the elders of Israel...
and bring them to
the tent of meeting,
and let them take
their stand there with you.
Then I will come
down and speak with you there,
and I will take the
Spirit who is upon you
and will put Him
upon them;
and they
shall bear the burden of the people with you,
so
that you shall not bear it alone..."
And it came about
that when the Spirit rested upon them,
they
prophesied.
Numbers 11:16-17, 25
The purpose of the exercising of the prophetic gift by
the seventy was so that Moses burden for the people could be
shared. Similarly, the main reason why all of God's people are urged to prophesy
today is that it is one of the most effective way to edify
the body:
"Pursue Love, yet
desire earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may
Prophesy...one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and
exhortation, and consolation...the one who prophesies edifies the church."
I Corinthians 14:
1-4 When we prophesy the living
word of God to each other, we help share one another's burdens and build
each other up. Through the widespread exercise of prophetic gift the
voice of God goes forth through numerous vessels to address numerous
needs. This is why we
are so passionate about our new workshop, Hearing God. The goal
of the workshop echo's Moses desire:
"Would that
all the LORD'S people were
prophets"
The non-flamboyant and regular
body-wide exercise of prophecy can only lessen the burdens on the
pastors of the church! The result will be a church that moves in the
direction He has for us both corporately and personally.
Amen.
This Week at
Immanuel
Please pray the Lord's comfort for our sister Phebe Singavarapu
and family at this time of loss.
Her mother died just this past Tuesday in India.
Pray for Phebe and her sons as they travel to
India.
Don't forget Friday
Night's DVD presentation and discussion on the DaVinci Code.
Faith Hall @
7:30pm
Youth and Adults are
invited.
Pastor Mark
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