Prophetic 'bombs' in meetings

We prepare our meetings. It's important to prepare. I prepare at length to preach. The worship band will meet before to pray and practice but of course we don’t know what the contributions ‘from the body’ are going to be. I actually had someone come to me once and say ‘It’s just all stage managed, it’s coordinated’ - as if I’d gone round and given cards out and said ‘Look, you speak then and then give it a moment, we’ll sing a song and then you say that’... We know that’s not true! Anyone can contribute, pray out, read a scripture.

Now occasionally, very rarely, someone speaks out in a way that is not edifying and has content that is against what we know from Scripture. It happens in most of our churches from time to time. If that happens at King’s one of the elders will step in and say something firm but gracious. We wouldn’t want to expose the contributor to censure but we would want to refocus on Jesus.

I did have one occasion when someone came to the front during worship and said to me “I’ve got a prophetic word. God has told me that Saddam Hussein is going to drop an atomic bomb on the church” and gave me the date. I prayed quickly and then said “I don’t think we’ll go there today” and declined to let them contribute. I didn’t think that word would build up or bring comfort to the church! So it’s all done with order and with leadership. This gives security.

To be continued...