NEW TESTAMENT READING PLAN: 1 Corinthians 15-16
SCRIPTURE READING
1 Corinthians 4:2 (NIV); Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must
prove faithful.
Sometimes we receive words, or think we receive words, from God for others, and for those
instances we have a rule: Don’t give directive words to others about non-moral issues.
A directive word is anytime we tell someone what to do as a result of listening prayer or
a prophetic word. Unless it’s a blatant moral command of scripture, we don’t run around
telling others what to do. “I sense God telling you…“I feel God saying…” or “God told me to
tell you…” are the kinds of phrases that we must stay away from when sharing with others.
We will not tell others to go off of their medication, take a certain job, invest in a specific
business, etc based on what we think the Lord is saying. Different from giving advice, giving
a directive word is telling someone what you think God is telling them. And who wants to be
responsible for giving a directive word that turns out to be false?
The number of church splits and people leaving churches over loose tongues and unfounded
prophecies are proof enough that this is something to be taken seriously. We need to use
our common sense and trust God that He can reveal truth to people without using us to force
feed it to them. It can be a dangerous thing to speak on behalf of the Lord. Rather we can
gently point out moral obligations and obvious sin issues, and we may carefully give humble
advice from personal experiences that relate to the issue at hand. If we do these things we
will encourage the body of Christ towards healthy growth!
PRAYER and MEDITATION
1. Have you been given a directive word about someone else that you think is from the Lord?
What is it? Take time to search your heart and check your motives. Is this really a word from
God, or could it be a negative judgment on your part?
2. Meditate on today’s verse. How has God entrusted His word to you? How can you prove
yourself faithful of this trust?
3. Is there someone with whom you have a solid and established relationship that you know
is acting in obvious sin as revealed in scripture? Ask God if and how He may want to use you
to gently point them towards His truth.
