You Still Have Flesh to Deal With (Part 2)

Years ago in one of the churches I pastored in Texas, a very mature and godly couple began attending our church. They had moved to our area and became involved in our church. The wife, Ginny, was very prophetic and given to prayer and personal ministry to others. Her husband, Ted, was a wonderful servant and became involved in our men’s and helps ministry. 

After they had joined the church and been members for about a year, I noticed that Ginny was attempting to minister to and connect with various first-time guests to our church at the end of each service. After a period of time I had a number of my leaders come to me individually sharing the same concern about the way Ginny was ministering to these guests. They had also observed that most of these guests she ministered to did not return to our church. 

I decided to ask my wife to help me observe how she ministered to people at the end of the next service. What we saw caused us much concern. She walked up to a new couple and asked if she could pray for them. When they agreed, she grabbed both of their hands, closed her eyes, looked down, and began to pray out loud in tongues. She kept this up for at least five minutes moving back and forth with her head and body and jerking their hands back and forth. After five or six minutes she finally said a few words of interpretation in English that were good words but by this time this man and his wife were looking for the exit door! 

I did not do anything immediately about this. I took some time to pray over this and to receive counsel from the elders in my church. They all agreed this came from a good intention of Ginny’s heart to minister to others. But they also agreed this was out of order and was not producing the fruit she or we as a church intended. In this case there was a strong consensus that we needed to confront Ginny about this. 

 I called Ted on the phone and let him know Janice and I needed to meet with him and Ginny, or just Ginny, about the way she was releasing her ministry to the new people in the church. He gave us permission to meet with her because he had been observing the same things as a bystander. He agreed something needed to be done about this. He also told me he didn’t know how to bring correction to her about it without her accusing him of quenching the Spirit in her. 

When we met with Ginny, I began by letting her know we appreciated her heart to minister to others and to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. I went on to let her know we believed her intentions were right but her methods of moving in the Spirit were not effective and were creating the wrong fruit and results in the people she was ministering to. She began to weep uncontrollably for several minutes and then told me, “Pastor, you are grievinggggg the Holy Spiritttttt!” She intentionally dragged out both words to make sure I understood my mistake in bringing correction to her. 

I responded immediately to her, “No Ginny, you are!” I calmly, gently, yet firmly told her the elders and I were responsible to establish proper biblical order for the release of the gifts in our church as we understood it from God’s Word. I also told her I understood if she did not agree with the guidelines we had established but that did not change our decision. I let her know we wanted to see people ministered to, but she would not be allowed to minister to new people in our church for a period of time. Then later she would need to take one of the elders or elder’s wives with her so what she shared could be judged according to the Word. I also asked her if she did pray in tongues, make it very short and get to the word God had given her for the people she was ministering to as soon as possible. I also asked her to stop all the “gyrations” back and forth when she ministered to others. 

Ginny wept some more after we spoke with her, but to her credit she agreed to follow our instructions. She became a much more effective minister to others as a result. Ted was thrilled because he did not know how to lead his wife in this area. This confrontation gave him some direction in his spiritual leadership in their marriage. 

This is one painful, but practical example of how people who want to operate in the gifts can yield to their flesh and think it is the Lord. Ginny meant well but her prophetic gifting needed to be pastored.

This is one of the reasons pastors and leaders choose to “clamp down” or restrict the gifts of the Spirit in the body, especially in the corporate gathering. In order to have a church where the gifts are demonstrated, the pastor and leaders must be willing to lead and confront people who are operating the gifts in an unprofitable way and risk losing them. 

In short, in order to have a genuine move of God in your church or small group, you have to be willing to lose people. This is true in a large corporate church setting and in a small group setting, like a home Bible study.

Most of the time it is not necessary to address or confront a dominating individual in your group or church publicly. I have trained my leaders to wait until this dominator tries to take charge or interrupt two or three times before getting with them personally. I instruct them to put guidelines on this individual such as: “The next time we meet together in our small group you have only two opportunities to make comments and keep your comments to two minutes in length.”

Either I or one of my leaders will appeal to them to trust our leadership and help us establish an environment where many can operate in the gifts and not just a few. Early on in my ministry a man in my church took it upon himself to speak a prophecy every time there was any lull in the service. He was a very gifted communicator and most of the time shared encouraging and timely words from the Lord. The problem was he would speak two or three prophecies per service. Because he was more developed in this gift than others in our church, no one else would ever yield to the Spirit’s promptings and step out in the gifts. What’s more, this individual would not give anyone else any time to respond to the Lord.

After several weeks of this, and after taking time to pray and receive counsel, I went to him and asked him to help me steward the move of God and the release of the gifts through others in our church. I asked him not to prophesy in our services for the next month and then only twice per month after that. He was a very mature leader and prophet in development and followed my instruction. As a result, we experienced an increase in the operation of the gifts through others in our church. 

The bottom line, there is a price to pay to have a move of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit operate in an orderly way in any church, small group, or ministry. We have to realize it is possible for even mature believers to hear something from the Lord but interpret it through the lens of their emotions or flesh and try to push that through in a way that is not Christlike. This requires each of us to maintain a submissive heart toward spiritual leadership and to realize none of us has all the truth or the last word on any subject. This is true even though we have heard the Lord and are attempting to follow His initiative in operating in the gifts. 

For we know in part and we prophesy in part (1 Corinthians 13:9).

In any case, having a church or ministry where the gifts are in operation can be messy. It is actually easier on the pastor or spiritual leaders of a church or ministry to shut down the use of the gifts and the move of the Spirit than to have to deal with some of the challenges that arise because of people operating the gifts in the flesh. But I don’t see that being the case in the book of Acts or in any of the New Testament epistles to the local churches. 

I believe it is possible to have a move of the Spirit in our lives that blesses others, ministers freedom to the captives, and doesn’t leave people, the church, or church leaders in a mess. 

Adapted from Greg Mohr’s Book, Flowing in the Supernatural

Watch Pastor Greg’s television series on Living a Supernatural Life to learn more.