Caution: God At Work.

During the second service, Pastor Aurelio (while in the middle of his sermon) gave Pastor Sam a prophetic word. I won't repeat the prophecy here, but I do think it might be helpful if we consider how to respond in instances when the Spirit of God empowers a man to speak prophetically.

We respond in prayer.
We respond in faith.
We respond in support.

Of course, we have two assumptions going into today's blog: first, we are assuming that God still speaks prophetically through His servants; and second, we are assuming that it indeed was the Spirit of God who prompted the prophetic word shared by Pastor Aurelio. (I hope the Church of the Nazarene still believes in the ministry of the Holy Spirit as indicated in Scripture: if it doesn't, then tell me... so I can bail out.)

So, our response in light of our assumptions:

We pray for our pastor. We pray that he will seek God to confirm the word. We pray that he will measure the prophetic word against the written word of God, because God will never contradict His written word. We pray that there will be no hindrances that block him from walking in obedience to God. We pray that the word of the Lord will be fulfilled.

We engage faith. In our case, it's easy to receive the prophetic word by faith because the word given by Pastor Aurelio is the word we have heard from so many other guest speakers. We also have our own personal relationship with God and can hear from Him ourselves. If someone asks "What has God said about Bronx Bethany?", then most of us who have attended Bronx Bethany over the past few years can give a clear answer. We are agreeing with what God has said. That's faith.

We respond in support. Why? Because the work of God's kingdom is never done alone. As Pastor Martha shared towards the end of service, we each comprise one small part of the body of Christ, and each small part is needed in order for the body to work to its optimum level. So beyond praying, beyond believing God, we have to do something. The saying is still true: faith without works is dead (See James 2:17).

So, as we close out this week, let's ask:

In light of the spoken prophecies, in light of the written word of God, and in light of the example of Jesus Christ, what can I do to support the ministry of Pastor Sam, Bronx Bethany, the Church of the Nazarene, and the Church around the world?