Apostolic Friends Forum - Prophesying Versus Speaking In Tongues

I found this study that I have been involving myself in to be very interesting... A discussion in another thread sent me studying the Word again and it never ceases to amaze what will come out of the word when it is opened.

This is OT....

The Spirit rested upon them... and they prophesied.

Quote:

Numbers 11:25 And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that [was] upon him, and gave [it] unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, [that], when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.
Numbers 11:26 But there remained two [of the] men in the camp, the name of the one [was] Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they [were] of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp.

Samuel is speaking to Saul (who is not a prophet by his own right). But Samuel told him that the spirit of the LORD would come upon him and he would prophesy and when he saw this sign... he knew God was with him.

Quote:

1Sa 10:6 And the Spirit of the LORD will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.
1Sa 10:7 And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, [that] thou do as occasion serve thee; for God [is] with thee.

1Sa 10:10 And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a company of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them.
1Sa 10:11 And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied among the prophets, then the people said one to another, What [is] this [that] is come unto the son of Kish? [Is] Saul also among the prophets?

Joel said... I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh... and they shall... among other things... prophesy. Peter recalls this scripture stating that THIS IS THAT. What happened on the day of Pentecost... was what this scripture was speaking. These are the things that will happen...

Quote:

Joel 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

Quote:

Luke 1:66 And all they that heard [them] laid [them] up in their hearts, saying, What manner of child shall this be! And the hand of the Lord was with him.
Luke 1:67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

(And so we can know what a prophesy might sound like... I'll continue. Notice it is mostly telling the wonderful works of God. I'll bring that back up later)

Luke 1:68 Blessed [be] the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people,
Luke 1:69 And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David;
Luke 1:70 As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began:
Luke 1:71 That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;
Luke 1:72 To perform the mercy [promised] to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant;
Luke 1:73 The oath which he sware to our father Abraham,
Luke 1:74 That he would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,
Luke 1:75 In holiness and righteousness before him, all the days of our life.
Luke 1:76 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
Luke 1:77 To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins,
Luke 1:78 Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us,
Luke 1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and [in] the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:80 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, and was in the deserts till the day of his shewing unto Israel.

Quote:

Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:
Act 2:18 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

And they understood them... And when they understood them they heard them speak the wonderful things of God.

Quote:

Act 2:8 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?
Act 2:9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,
Act 2:10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes,
Act 2:11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

So... Peter said... THIS IS THAT... the "this is that" he spoke of was Joel's prophesy. Joel's prophesy was that their sons & daughters would prophesy.

What does a prophesy look like? It speaks of the wonderful works of God and that is exactly what happened on the day of Pentecost. It happened in each of their languages so they could all hear it and understand it.

Peter was saying... Joel said your sons & daughters will prophesy... and this is that.

But when we see the scripture below we nearly ignore the word prophesy. All we see is tongues. Of the 12 people did speak in tongues. But people did also prophesy because prophesying when the spirit of the Lord comes upon you is a long established sign even from OT times.

What would we think if the following verse said... "And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did speak in tongues."? We'd think it was speaking of their actual conversion most likely. But we don't think about this possibly being their conversion because it says they prophesied even though prophecy is a well established sign of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Quote:

Act 21:9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

It is amazing how we focus on tongues so very much when the Bible focused much, much more on prophesying. The Bible often touts prophesying as a sign. A sign of God's spirit coming upon his people.