1 Corinthians 14:32 “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” is a loosely quoted scripture that I think needs a little clarification. The scriptures that I quote below seem to contradict most of what is commonly taught.

Daniel wrote of his encounter with a messenger of God and said, “So he came near where I stood: and when he came I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision” (Daniel 8:17).

“And I Daniel fainted, and was sick certain days; afterward I rose up, and did the king’s business; and I was astonished at the vision, but none understood it” (Daniel 8:27).

“Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength” (Daniel 10:8). Daniel had no control over his strength, and in verse 17 said, “Neither is there breath in me.”

Ezekiel had a similar experience that accompanied his encounter with the presence of the Lord, he said, “…I fell upon my face…” (Ezekiel 1:28). This same type of phenomenon occurred a second time to him in Ezekiel 3:23-24, “Then I arose and went into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face. Then the Spirit entered me, and set me upon my feet…”

The New Testament also records this same kind of effect when a person encounters the presence of the Lord. John gives his own personal testimony of this in Revelation 1:17, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And He laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not, I am the first and the last.

2 Chronicles 5:14 says the priests could not stand, “So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house.”

Both Old and New Testament, saved and unsaved testify of a humbling experience outside the control of man when the glory of the Lord becomes present. For thousands of years and from all walks of life people have witnessed encounters with the glory of the Lord that has caused them to completely loose control, faint or fall down under the power; from an unsaved Saul on the road to Damascus to faithful John the beloved on the isle of Patmos.

If I teach that 1 Corinthians 14:32 “And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets” means that you are at all times in complete control, why then did the prophets of old faint, loose their breath, and retain no strength? That does not sound to me as if they were fully in charge of what was happening to them. It’s true, God will not force His will over our will, but he does at times allow us to become confounded. For example Acts 2:6 says, “Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”

The spirits of the prophets are as Paul said, “subject to the prophets” but I don’t think he meant it the way it is being taught today. Anything that is subject to man is flawed and cannot be trusted a hundred percent. Prophets, prophesy in part (1 Corinthians 13:9) and according to the proportion of faith (Romans 12:6). They are not perfect.

The spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet, just as the tears of a prophet are subject to the emotion. Have you ever cried so hard that you couldn’t stop? Not even the apostle Paul was able to at all times contain himself in the midst of what God was doing. He said in Romans 9:3, “That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.” Why didn’t he just claim complete control of his spirit and stop the sorrow? It can be embarrassing to cry in public but that does not stop us from crying. Church history records that in one of Jonathan Edwards’s services people were moaning and sobbing as the congregation came under strong conviction to repent of their sins. The title of his message was ‘Sinners in the hands of an angry God’. Travail in the spirit can cause people to react in strange ways.

‘The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets’ are often times the very cause of canceling an encounter with God. You can determine within your spirit that you will not fall down when being prayed for and you probably won’t. You can cancel all kinds of spiritual activity with your spirit. If you choose not to respond or participate with the Holy Spirit, he will not override your choice. The Spirit that empowers us will not overpower us, but when we yield to his control, we loose our own.