She knew about a woman at her work and she was right, and it has frightened her for four years.
Let me be careful about the story because the story is not the point and I am not going to build anything on it.
She had a strong and specific sense about somebody. She did not act on it, except in one small way: she made a point of being where that person was, for about a fortnight, without saying anything.
And then the thing she had sensed came out, and it was exactly what she had sensed, in detail, and she had had no way whatsoever of knowing it.
Now. Here is what she expected to feel, and it is what she thinks she should have felt.
She expected gratitude. She expected to feel that she had been given something useful and that God was kind.
What she actually felt, and has felt ever since, is a low-grade dread.
Because if that can happen once, it can happen again, and she does not know the rules. She does not know what she is supposed to do when it does. She does not know whether she is now responsible for acting on things she cannot verify, or whether staying quiet the way she did was a failure, or what happens the day she is certain and wrong.
Four years of not wanting it.
And she has never said one word of that to anybody, because who do you say it to. I think I might have something and I would rather not. There is no conversation that starts like that.
So let me ask you.
What did you know that you had no way of knowing?
Paul settles what it is for without settling what it was
I teach this passage carefully, because it is the one people reach for and the one they most often stretch, and I am going to stay inside what it actually says.
Paul is writing to a church that has a great deal going on and very little order, and he sets out a principle before he lists anything.
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.1 Corinthians 12:7
Look at what that sentence does and does not do.
It does not tell you what happened to you. It is not a diagnostic and I am not going to use it as one, and I want to say plainly that nothing in this article tells you what your sense about that woman was. I was not there and it is not mine to rule on.
What it does is settle the purpose of anything the Spirit does through a person, in advance, before anybody has to identify it.
For the common good.
Now sit with what that removes, because it removes exactly the thing that has been frightening you.
It removes ownership. If a thing is given for the common good, then it is not a possession, and it is not a capacity you now have, and it is not a responsibility that has been transferred to you to manage.
You have been carrying it as though somebody handed you a set of car keys and no instructions and it is now your vehicle. That is not the shape Paul describes. The shape Paul describes is that the Spirit does something, through whoever, for whoever it is for, and the person is the place it happened rather than the owner of the thing.
Hear where you stand.
You are not now responsible for a faculty. Scripture says the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good, and the Spirit never once handed a person a capability and then withdrawn to see how they manage it.
And I will answer the specific fear, because it deserves a specific answer rather than a general comfort.
What happens the day I am certain and wrong?
Nothing catastrophic, if you never made it a claim. That is the whole of the protection and it is simpler than people make it. You did not announce anything four years ago. You made a point of being where somebody was. That is not a prophecy; that is a woman turning up.
Turning up is never wrong. It cannot be wrong. You can be entirely mistaken about why you are somewhere and the being there is still good.
And you are not the owner of a faculty. 1 Corinthians 12 settles the purpose of anything the Spirit does before it names one single thing He does, which is the opposite order to the one your dread has been running in, and the Holy Spirit has not handed anybody a capability and stood back to watch them manage it.
So here is what changes, and it is precise, because vagueness is what has cost you four years.
Separate the two questions.
What was it? is a question you cannot answer, and you have been treating it as the gate that everything else has to pass through. Leave it open. You are allowed to.
What is it for? is already answered, in the text, in advance, for anything of this kind: for the common good. Not for your identity, not for your reputation, not for your record of accuracy, and not for you to manage.
Which means the only live question is the practical one, and it is small: what do I actually do?
And you already know, because you did it four years ago. You turned up.
First Corinthians says the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good, and the giving is the Spirit's and the good is somebody else's. The Spirit poured out on all flesh never once handed anybody a thing to own.
You are not carrying a faculty. You are a woman who turned up, and turning up is never wrong.
You have been the place something happened rather than the one responsible for it. The word settles the purpose before anybody has to identify the thing, and the Spirit is the One doing the giving in that sentence.
Declare this over yourself
Say these where you can hear yourself. Know what holds them up. This authority is not yours by nature, it is Christ's, and in Christ it has been given to you, so you speak as one representing the King. And you speak under His will, never over it. However He answers, and in whatever way He comes, the outcome is His.
- Rightness, you are not mine and I am not carrying you. First Corinthians 12 says the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good, and given for is a completely different thing from given to keep.
- Dread that says I am now responsible for a faculty I cannot verify, you have made four years small and careful and in the name of Jesus I dismiss you. The same Holy Spirit has never handed anybody a capability and stood back to see how they manage it.
- Lord, First Corinthians 12 settles what it is for before anybody has to work out what it was, and the good in that sentence belongs to somebody else and the giving belongs to Your Spirit. I am saying out loud today what I actually did rather than what I think it was, and turning up has never been wrong.
1 Corinthians 12:7
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