These two Emmaus disciples walking with the stranger didn’t even recognise Him; they had seen this man so many times and heard Him so often, yet somehow remained oblivious. They had no idea it was Jesus, but only afterwards did they realise that their hearts ‘burned with them as He spoke to them on the road…’ (Luke 24:32).
One thing I have gleaned on my journey of faith is that God doesn’t speak His mind for no apparent reason. He never speaks just to voice unpurposed thoughts, as if He needs to have a meaningless chat from time to time. Especially if it is only for us to hear, so we can neatly tuck it away in our repository of spiritual experiences in our mental filing cabinet. This completely misses the high value of God’s word. Yet this is how we sometimes treat His word when He speaks to us.
Like these two disciples, the first-century church didn’t handle things this way; they prospered and saw the apparent blessing, active presence, and involvement of the Holy Spirit because they eagerly followed and obeyed the living, active word of God. But in the 21st century, things are different, and that is one reason I believe the church seems to lack so much of the Spirit’s life: we don’t take the word of God as seriously as they did. And I don’t mean Scripture here as a dry text on paper. I mean the spoken, inspired, living and current mind of God, as we see and hear throughout Acts and Paul’s writings.
In the first century, when the church community met together, the Lord continued to speak to them in their midst through certain members of the body of Christ called prophets. The other members present had the final say, confirming whether what was spoken or ministered from these ones truly came from the Lord. This served as a safety net and backstop (1 Cor. 14:29). We rely too much on our intellect and reasoning and often neglect or shy away from what we find too hard to understand and apply in practice. This verse in Corinthians highlights the church’s unique role as the corporate judge as to what is genuinely given from heaven. Discernment among the saints in spiritual matters is a vital part of community life that needs to be restored or reawakened.
“Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others pass judgment. But if a revelation is made to another who is seated, the first one must keep silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all may be exhorted; and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets; for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:29–33, NASB95)
When was the last time you heard the Lord speak among the saints as everyone gathered around the Lord? Afterwards, you may have made some indefinite attempt to see how that spoken (prophetic) word related to your life and its current circumstances and demands? Or maybe you questioned whether it was the Lord and felt uncertain? Or maybe you left the meeting saying, ‘I didn’t understand a thing that speaker said’! Or maybe you left as oblivious as you were when you first walked in?
Or did you hear it, let it circulate and percolate inside you as you contemplated its content and its appeal to the inner man of your heart? What did you do with it after that? Or did it immediately fall by the wayside only to be swallowed up by the next passing bird of the air? Either way, has it stayed with you, or have you lost it, let it go, or forgotten it? The benefit you will reap from that will have net-zero effect. It will produce a zero-fold harvest in you. It will add nothing to your barns or your returns when you stand before the Lord. The two from Emmaus didn’t just leave this word they saw and heard unattended. They immediately acted and did something with it.
The church has lost its capacity to seek through and enquire of the Lord. Not only as individuals, but as a church. One of the greatest blessings we can receive as the church is to receive, hear, and have revealed to us God’s current mind and thoughts. I don’t mean any old word or thought spoken out among the saints in any old gathering ‘supposedly’ from God. I mean what actually comes from God through one whom He has sent and where God’s word is spoken under the unction and prophetic anointing of the Holy Spirit, and clearly serves as a witness in our hearts. Once these kinds of words come, we must hold on to them. Retaining them and treating them as the word of God is a part of the church’s responsibilities, accountabilities and progress. God doesn’t just want to blow out some hot air. He has a purpose in everything He speaks. Let’s not treat it as trifle or even as a little unimportant; let us seek to listen and learn to hear when the Lord is, in fact, speaking and how to respond!
We cannot live upon bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4).
If you see and hear the Lord’s movements and mind in the next life-giving word as it relates to you personally and/or corporately, immediately incline your heart to hear it fully, hold on to it, and lean in and enquire of the Lord for further understanding. We see this in Acts 13:1-3, when the prophets and teachers, while ministering to the Lord, heard the Holy Spirit speak and give specific directions and instructions to those who were present. Then v. 3 says, ‘…then when they had fasted and prayed…’, meaning that after further fasting and prayer, they laid hands on Barnabas and Saul and sent them off. These spiritual men enquired further; even after hearing the Holy Spirit speak, they sought the Lord in prayer and fasting to confirm and establish God’s will. This kind of dependence on the Lord will inevitably produce much greater spiritual growth in those prepared to press into the Lord, and they would have forfeited it if they had simply let it pass them by without further enquiry.
“Now there were at Antioch, in the church that was there, prophets and teachers: Barnabas, and Simeon who was called Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene, and Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Saul. While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, “Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.” (Acts 13:1–3, NASB95)
We can’t ask, ‘What if they didn’t seek the Lord further?’ The Holy Spirit wouldn’t have included it in Scripture if it hadn’t happened this way. It was clearly an important example to get a mention. It was recorded because it clearly showed the Spirit’s leading and the exampled response of those who were spiritual. This is how we grow up into Him, the head of the body, and begin to lay hold of greater things in the Spirit. Unless we are prepared to go that extra mile for the Lord, then we won’t grow that extra degree in the Spirit. We will stay exactly where we are. We will enjoy what we have always had and be blissfully unaware of what we are missing.
God doesn’t condemn us for this, but He desires to continually bless us by growing in the knowledge of Himself through His Son. It is about growing up in the faith and into Christ. God wants sons, not spiritual infants. These are aspects of the Christian life that need to be restored in individuals and in the church.