But if all prophesied and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he’s convicted by all he’s called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.
– 1 Corinthians 14:24–25
I love this picture of worship according to the New Testament. This whole chapter is about different gifts, prophecy and tongues and particular. And you get down to verse 24… Paul is talking about the value of the gift of prophecy, in particular, even in comparison with tongues.
1 Corinthians 14:24–25 Calls Us to Proclaim the Word for the Glory of God
And there’s so much we could talk about here. But the value of prophecy is that it is totally intelligible to unbelievers. And he starts to give this picture of a believer or outsider. A language he uses says, comes into our worship gathering, and as he hears Spirit-empowered proclamation that points to the glory of God, he will be convicted, called to account the secrets of his heart disclosed, and as a result, he will fall in his face and worship God and declare God is really among you.
Don’t we all want this for our worship gatherings? Tome together as the church. To proclaim the Word in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pointing to the glory of God. To do it in a way that those who don’t know Jesus conclude God is among us. And they will fall down and worship him. Let’s pray for this every Sunday we gather together in our churches, and let’s anticipate this.
1 Corinthians 14:24–25 Challenges Us to Celebrate Our Gatherings as Witness to Outsiders
Let’s invite unbelievers, outsiders to use the language here from 1 Corinthians 14 to come to our worship gatherings. Think about who you can invite this week to come to church, to the gathering of God’s people. Pray that 1 Corinthians 14:24–25 would happen among them. Oh God, may it be so. We pray that our worship gatherings would be a display of your glory. That there would be Spirit-empowered proclamation of your Word that points to your love and your mercy and your justice, your grace in Christ.
And God, we pray that the result, even as we gather together, this coming Sunday in our churches, would be one unbelievers or outsiders there. God help us to invite them to be there and when they come, we pray. And in the power of your Holy Spirit, you would bring about conviction like this, that you would disclose the secrets of their heart and that people would worship you for the first time this Sunday and conclude, this is not natural. What I’m seeing, this is supernatural. God is in this place.
Prayer for the Kogi People
Lord, we pray for that and even as we pray for this, oh God, we pray for places and people, groups in the world where there are not worship gatherings happening, where there is no church or there is at best a small struggling church.
God, we pray specifically today for the Kogi people of Colombia, this indigenous tribe in our remote mountain region of Colombia. Lord, we pray for the planting of the church among the Kogi in Colombia that there would be displays of your glory like we read about in 1 Corinthians 14:24–25, that you would bring Kogi people to see your glory in your church. God, we pray for this around the world in all of our churches, we pray for this specifically in the churches. We’re a part of this Sunday and every Sunday, according to your Word, in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
