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REVIEW
So, let’s continue looking at these nine fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives—namely, “… love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control …” (Galatians 5:22-23). We have learned that these are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life and are also the evidence that one is truly spiritual. No, it is not our spiritual giftings that indicate that we are mature spiritually; our spiritual maturity is based on how mature our fruit is. So, we began studying these nine virtues a couple of weeks ago, but not necessarily in the traditional order: We began with two of the fruit sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list— the fruits kindness and goodness. And we saw that these are sister fruits because they are so similar. We explained that “kindness” is more of the attitude by which we do things for people, while “goodness” is the action accompanying the right attitude that we possess. But a point we made was that Paul is describing two virtues that we can see evidence of in one’s life, and are not just what a person is versus what they do. No, every believer is called to both be kind and do kind things, to be good and do good things. And we saw that “kindness” describes someone who is useful, manageable, or employed by the Lord. We also saw that kindness’ sister fruit—the fruit of goodness—describes being “beneficial.” So, if we want to be both useful and beneficial in God’s kingdom, we need to be producing both of these fruit in our lives. But we learned that as it is with all of the fruit of the Spirit, these fruit do not come by accident. No, kindness and goodness do not just fall on us like apples out of a tree. Like it is with growing specific fruit in our gardens, we have to plan to produce the fruits of kindness and goodness. So, in regards to this, last week we asked the question: How many books have you read on the fruit of the Spirit? How many studies have you done on the various fruit of the Spirit? I believe we can look at our libraries and see what we are producing in our lives. So, we ought to study up on these things and by doing so, make place in our lives for them. Then last week, we moved into another couple of fruit of the Spirit—the fruits of longsuffering and faithfulness. We began with longsuffering, and saw that while “patience” is another word that could be used, the New King James version’s translation of “longsuffering” might be better suited. The reason being is because the Greek word used in Galatians 5:22 is almost every time used in connection with someone being patient with someone else. However, with the word commonly translated “patience,” it is often used in connection with being patient in circumstances. Therefore, I believe that the difference between these two Biblical terms is that one is patience in regard to people (i.e. makrothumia) and the other (i.e. hupomeno) is enduring circumstances. Therefore, longsuffering is not moved by negative emotions while patience is not moved by negative circumstances. And as I made the point of, this fruit of the Spirit comes from the Greek word makrothumia which describes someone who takes a “long” time to get “mad” or “go off” on you like a stick of dynamite. Therefore, a person who possesses “longsuffering” is someone who is extremely forbearing and doesn’t easily “explode” on others. Based on First Corinthians 13:4, we learned that longsuffering is at the forefront of love’s characteristics. But we also learned that we are not going to be able to be longsuffering in our own power. According to Colossians 1:11, our level of longsuffering and patience accompanied by joy is tied to His strength and power. However, we learned that like there are certain types of soil that produce certain types of fruit better, there is a particular type of soil that best produces the fruit of longsuffering. So, I gave you a couple of characteristics of this type of heart: First of all, we learned in Colossians 3:12 that among other virtues, longsuffering is put on like clothes are put on. And like it is with the putting on of clothes in this physical life, the first step to wearing them is a mentality (i.e. determining what we are going to wear). None of us stood by our closet this morning and the clothes we are wearing jumped off the hangers and onto our body. No, we had to choose to put them on. And so we learned that just as our clothes didn’t choose us, but you choose them, neither will the fruit of longsuffering choose us; we must choose it. And we went through a couple of ways of thinking that will help us to choose it. Then we looked at the fruit of faithfulness and began by looking at the relationship between faith and faithfulness: We saw that this particular fruit of the Spirit is describing someone who, through their faith, is reliable and loyal—that is, he or she is trustworthy, dependable, dedicated, consistent and unwavering in their dealings with others. However, I made the point that I do not believe there is a big difference between one’s faith in God and faithfulness towards man. Why do you say this, pastor? It is because God’s faithfulness is what we put our faith in. You see, we can only believe a God who is faithful to do what He says He will do and that has done what He says He has done. If He vacillates in His character, how can we depend on Him and know what He is going to do? Therefore, this is why I believe our faith in God is rooted in God’s faithfulness. Likewise, I also believe the faithfulness we exhibit in our lives is a result of our faith in Him. Let me explain: If I truly believe God, I myself will be a reliable and dependable person. I’ll say it this way: if I trust God, I will be trustworthy myself. So, it is for this reason that I do not believe one can separate our faithfulness in life from our faith in the Lord. Yes, God’s faithfulness is what our faith is rooted in, and our faithfulness is the fruit of the faith we have in Him. So, I asked a question that I believe summarizes how we can know how faithful we’ve been: Can people believe in us? You see, just as God is constantly called “faithful,” we likewise need to reflect the same attribute of faithfulness in our lives as well. People need to know that we are dependable. Folks need to understand that we are trustworthy and reliable. The world needs to know that we absolutely will not lie to them. And the reason this is so important is because we are the only Bible some people will ever read. We are being read, saints! But regarding faithfulness, we can see that it is one of the most rewarded fruit in the kingdom of God. Yes, it is arguably the most lauded fruit that we can produce in our lives. No, it is not necessarily always recognized by man, but it is always praised by God—for it is one of the fruit Jesus is going to be looking for in that Great Day when we hopefully will hear from Him, “Well done you good and faithful servant.” Now let’s move on this week and cover the last two fruit that the apostle Paul mentions. These are the only two that Galatians 5:23 contain—gentleness & self-control. LOWER BODY EXERCISE And I want to let you know that these two fruit of the Spirit are probably at the bottom of just about every believer’s list as well—for the fruits of humility and self-control require much self-denial and sacrifice, and that is simply hard on one’s flesh. Therefore, while we might tend to focus more on the love, joy and peace side of the fruit of the Spirit, faithfulness, humility, and self-control are the other side of the fruit of the Spirit that will make us fully fruitful. In other words, we can be as fruitful in love, joy and peace as we can possibly be, but if we do not produce any faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control then we will not be filled with the fruits of righteousness. In fact, the apostle Paul prayed a prayer for the Church of Philippi and concluded this prayer with— “being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Christ Jesus to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:11). You see, I believe that the fruits of righteousness that Paul was talking about are these nine fruit of the Spirit we are talking about here—for, as we’ve learned, they are indeed the fruits of that righteous nature we have inherited in Christ. The other reasons I believe is by looking at the rest of the verse—they are both “by Christ Jesus” and “to the glory and praise of God.” Sounds like John chapter 15 to me—for our fruitfulness can only come through the Lord Jesus Christ (i.e. abiding in Him and apart from him we can do nothing) and Jesus also said that this fruit glorifies God. You see, when one is born again, they receive a new recreated spirit—one that is in the very image and likeness of God’s righteousness. And as the apostle John said, those who have truly been made righteous are meant to produce that righteousness in their life. In other words, through this new righteous nature we’ve freely received, there are these nine virtues that are meant to be produced in our lives. But notice in this prayer that Paul desired that we be “filled” with the fruits of that righteousness: The picture he was painting was that of a tree that was full of fruit. We have all seen certain trees that have no fruit, others that have some fruit, and still others that are full of fruit. God wants our limbs to be full of the fruits of righteousness, saints! In other words, the Lord expects a harvest to be produced in and through our lives from the seed of righteousness that He freely gave us when we were born again. And what makes us full of fruit is when we are producing all nine of the fruit of the Spirit in their fullness. Let me give you a good example of what I am referring to here: One time I had the Lord ask me— “Would you like to know what the muscles of your spirit man are?” Of course, I was quick to answer— “Yes, sir! Yes, sir! Yes, sir!” He responded with— “They are the fruit of the Spirit.” Then a Scripture immediately dropped in my heart that says, “By their fruit, you will know them.” In this passage, in Matthew chapter seven, Jesus was talking about false prophets and false teachers, but knowing people by their fruit applies both to the righteous and the unrighteous. Essentially, what the Lord was telling me was that just as we recognize people from a distance by their physical physique, we recognize those who are both spiritual and unspiritual by their spiritual physique. In that case, it is by their fruit (their spiritual muscles or lack thereof) that we will know them. So, I say all of this to say, we don’t want to be like a lot of the gym rats out there that go to the gym to work out only their chest, shoulders, and arms and have these skinny little quads and calves. No, we need to develop the lower body just like we are (hopefully) looking to develop the upper body. And in this case, the lower body is the lower third of Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit (i.e. faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). So, attention needs to be given to developing the lower third of our spiritual muscles just like we desire to be developed in the upper third fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, and peace. Once we do that, we will be a perfect man and “full of fruit.” Amen? MEEKNESS IS NOT WEAKNESS So, let’s begin this week with gentleness: Now most translations use this word “gentleness,” but many of us might better recognize the King James version’s translation of “meekness” here. And the word Paul used here literally describes someone who is gentle, meek or mild. I think the term “mild” is interesting here because what do you think of when you think of something being “mild”? We might think of something not being sharp, spicy or bitter. And it makes me think of cheese! I think of “mild” cheddar versus “sharp” cheddar. You see, mild cheddar is much blander and more moderate. The sharper cheddars, on the other hand, stand out a little more! They are a little tarter! Likewise, a “mild” person is much less abrasive, severe and harsh. Rather, they are gentle, meek, and humble. But unlike the process that makes cheddar “sharper”—which is the time cheese is given to age—it usually takes more time to make a person “milder” as opposed to sharper. Of course, it doesn’t work this way with everyone—just like not everyone becomes wiser just by simply getting older—but as a general rule, the more one ages, the more humbled they should become. But this virtue called “gentleness” is by nature, meek, mild, and humble. The exact opposite of harsh, abrasive, and arrogant. Therefore, as you’ve heard me use already, perhaps the best translation of this word we would have today would be “humility.” Now the terminology that is used by our translations is one of the reasons that I believe so many Christians do not esteem this particular virtue. For some of us, we don’t see the terms “gentleness” and “meekness” as strengths. But what we need to understand is that “meekness” does not describe a weak person. No, meekness is not weakness. Rather, meekness is power under perfect control. You see, if I am mild & meek, it doesn’t mean I don’t have something to offer or don’t have an opinion; it just simply means that, in my love for you, I am willing to lay down my thoughts, opinion and viewpoint. Could I let you have it? Absolutely! But what does the selfless love of God do? It doesn’t do what it can do; it does what you are open to it doing for you. Now the polar opposite of a gentle, meek, and humble person is a person who needs to be in control. Yes, they try to change people and circumstances around them. We don’t want to be this way, church! And by cultivating this fruit of the Spirit, we can change ourselves to not be this way. And why? Because like all nine of the fruit of the Spirit, humility, gentleness, and meekness is a characteristic of God Himself! OUR MEEK MASTER To me, this is one of the most admirable virtues of God—how He does not make us do anything or assert Himself on us in any way. No, He is the epitome of humility in that He knows everything and really has all the answers (unlike us, who think we have all the answers), yet He let’s us choose what wisdom we get from Him. God truly is “meek” in every sense of the word! Didn’t the Lord Jesus refer to Himself this way—as “meek” and lowly in heart (see Matthew 11:29). Boy, I’ll tell you, Jesus could have come to this earth and set everyone straight just like that! But He didn’t. He took the humble road all throughout His ministry and did not seek His own. Everything He did was out of love for others. And this should be our motivation as well. So, if our Lord & God can be this way when He is as great & glorious as He is, then we certainly can produce this same kind of humility no matter how great & glorious we think we are. Yes, we ought to aspire to grow in this fruit of the Spirit as well. Again, church, you will not find a stronger person than a truly meek person. Why? It is because it is much more difficult to submit your will in humility than it is to exert your will in pride. The world does the latter, but the Spirit will empower the believer to humble themselves and be willing to yield to others in love. THE ATTITUDE OF HUMILITY In Galatians 6:1, we have a great example of how one who possesses this fruit of the Spirit will behave: In it, the apostle Paul says, “Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” Now this word for “gentleness” is the same word Paul used in Galatians 5:23, and we have seen how it describes someone who might possess something, but they do not use their power to criticize, ridicule, and assert their will on someone. So, what this describes is the demeaner and attitude we have when we are helping someone who has missed it—we are not carrying ourselves haughtily and condemning them, but we are approaching them “gently, humbly, and with respect”—essentially, the way we would want someone to restore us if we had made the same mistake. So, it all goes back to the golden rule, right? Treating one another as we would want to be treated. Which is why Paul said what he said next in this verse … “considering yourself lest you also be tempted.” An interesting point here is that the word used for “considering” is the Greek word skopeo. This word is where we derive words such as “telescope, microscope and periscope” from. So, as it pertains to these words, we can see that skopeo means to focus on, or to look specifically at or for something. When I think of these examples of a telescope or microscope, I see someone who is actively trying to look for something that might not be apparent to the naked eye. They are using a specific tool that magnifies the object that they are looking at so that they can clearly see something that otherwise would not be seen. But here is the problem: Most of us are looking at others with these “scopes,” not ourselves. Yes, we look at others through a “microscope” and at ourselves through “rose-colored glasses.” This is what religion does, but a truly humble and spiritual person will inspect himself first--removing the telephone pole from his own eye before he ever attempts to remove the toothpick from someone else’s eye (see Matthew 7:5). And why? Why is it important for us to consider the specks in our own eyes first when helping others? Paul goes on to say, “lest you also be tempted.” Now it is important to understand that the attitude that we just described is the exact opposite attitude of that “spirit of gentleness” he mentions earlier in this verse. So many times, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are at a place spiritually where we are incapable of being tempted with certain things. This is absolutely untrue! No one is untouchable! Now you and I might not be capable of doing certain things today, but if we sow to our flesh for an extended period of time our corruption is inevitable (see Galatians 6:8). Understanding this will greatly help you and I have a “spirit of gentleness” when restoring those that have fallen. But as it has been so poetically stated— “You never know what your fruit is made of until it gets squeezed.” In other words, you and I don’t truly know what we would do if the situation was reversed and the pressure that is on them was on us instead. Therefore, the point Paul was making in this verse is that this attitude of humility will help us to deal with one another in a godly way. And it begins by us truly examining ourselves instead of trying to examine everyone else. But again, this fruit of the Spirit is not going to fall on us like an apple out of a tree. We are going to have to water that seed in us in order to see it produced in our lives. PURSUING AND PUTTING ON HUMILITY Now in the verse we looked at last week (Colossians 3:12) we saw that these fruit of the Spirit are to be purposefully “put on.” Again, Paul says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering.” So, like it was with “longsuffering,” we see this word for “gentleness” in this list as well, but here it is translated “humility.” And we see in First Timothy 6:11, that we are told to “…pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.” So, this teaches me that this virtue given by the Holy Spirit, along with the others as well, are to be both pursued in our lives and then put on intentionally. And I believe the reason God designed it this way is because He desires His children to grow up. Yes, our Heavenly Father is not wanting to dress us; He wants us to put our clothes on ourselves. You know, regarding this fruit of “humility,” you have a large part of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ who believe that in order for us to become humble, God has to do it. They embrace the thought that we need to let God humble us. Some will even go as far as saying, “God, please make me more humble!” But did you know that the Bible never once teaches us that this is how we are to pursue this virtue? Now has somebody who was lifted up in pride been humbled by the Lord. Absolutely! One incredible example of this is King Nebuchadnezzar. This guy started believing he was the Most High himself. So, God quickly put him in his place to where he wound up eating grass off of the ground like a wild beast. We also see this in the New Testament like when King Herod started believing that he himself was a god and the angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms. So, yes, we have examples where God humbled people, but again, this is not how the Bible teaches us to learn humility. We are told time and time again that we are to humble ourselves. Let me give you three or four witnesses:
So, apparently, this is something you and I are going to have to do to ourselves. No, it is not our job to try and keep other people humble either. We have a full-time job humbling ourselves. Why? Because pride & self-centeredness are just engrained in our flesh, and it is going to take some serious seeking to see it in us. But that is what we have the Holy Spirit for—to help us to both desire to see the “self” eradicated from our lives and to empower us to produce more “humility.” If we will yield to Him, He will help us do what we never could have done in the arm of the flesh. Amen? THIS IS NOT A DEMOCRACY Now let’s move on to the last, but certainly not least, fruit of the Spirit in Paul’s list—the fruit of self-control. This term “self-control” comes from the Greek word enkrateia which is a combination of two words—the word en which means “in, inner or inward” and the word kratos which describes “ruling power.” In fact, this word kratos is where we get our English term “democracy” from—the word demos being the Greek word for “people” and the word kratos meaning “ruling power.” So, the word democracy literally means “people ruling power”—essentially being a government that is ruled by the people. So, when you combine these words together, you get what I consider to be the perfect definition for “self-control.” Self-control is not people ruling power; it is “inward ruling power.” In other words, a person exhibiting the fruit of self-control is a person who is “governing” themselves. So, “self-control” is the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to rule over our outward man by our inward man. In other words, it is controlling the flesh by the spirit man. But like you’ll hear said in the world regarding people shooting down the notion that the majority rules when it comes to certain decisions— “This is not a democracy!” And it’s not with this particular fruit of the Spirit either! No, God the Father is not going to control you for you! Jesus is not going to make you produce His fruit either! And contrary to popular opinion, the Holy Spirit is also not going to make you bear this fruit of self-control! No, the only one that will control you is you! Now we are going to have a little fun this morning: Church, if I were to hold up a $100 and said the first person to get up in front of the church and jump on one leg, clucking like a chicken will get it, what would happen? Someone would do it! And my point would be that they would happily “lose-control” because they were properly motivated. So, wouldn’t the opposite be the case too? Couldn’t we control ourselves with the proper motivation? Sure, we can! WHO’S IN CONTROL? Now people will tell you that there are things they simply cannot control in regards to how they act. They will say, for example, that they just can’t help but blow up and go on a rage etc. but that is simply not true. If it were true, then we are dealing with something demonic because, as Paul taught in First Corinthians 14:32, the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets—and that applies to everything that we do. If we lose control and absolutely cannot control ourselves, then that is probably demonic in nature. Someone might say, “Yeah, well I don’t agree with that! I can’t control this temper I got! Well, I disagree with that person. I believe once properly motivated anyone can control anything that they think, say or do. Yes, the vast majority of the people that say they can’t control themselves can control themselves if given the proper motivation. Do you know, you’ll have a husband or wife who will just rail on their spouse and tell them how they feel just because they say they can’t help it. But that same person will go to their job and no matter how much their employer ticks them off or angers them they are able to keep from venting all of their feelings to their boss. And why? Because of what they know their actions might cost them! Do you remember when Jesus told us in His Sermon on the Mount that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and if your hand causes you to sin cut it off? Why did He say this? Because it is better for one of your members to perish than your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30) Now most people don’t believe that Jesus was being literal here, but I differ. I believe He was being quite literal. Now, of course, He wasn’t encouraging self-mutilation. The Lord does not want us to start a ministry of eye plucking and hand chopping. But I believe He was being literal in that He was telling us that if any of your body parts are “causing” you to sin, then you should eliminate that body part. The truth is, however, that none of our body parts “cause” us to sin. Why? Because we—the real us on the inside—are in control of the carnal part of us on the outside. Let me give you a couple of examples of this— an example of the how we can control our eye from sinning and an example of how we can control our hand from sinning: First, the eye: I know that there are guys out there who say that they just can’t help but look at pornography and lust after women, but the truth is—if you were to tie that guy up in front of a computer and say—“Ok, I’m going to run a bunch of porn websites and if you look at any of these women to lust after them, I’m going to take this here spoon and pluck your eyes out.” Guess what you will discover? Somehow, supernaturally, that guy is going to find the ability to not lust. Why? Because He values His eye more than the lusts of his flesh. Now how about that guy who is beating up on his wife and says he just can’t help it because the rage just gets all over him when she does and says the things she does? He can control that just like the guy who says he can’t help but look at women lustfully. Do you know how I know that? It’s because all you have to do to prove that is put that guy in room with a 350 lb. football player and then get that football player to say and do all the things the other guy’s wife said and did, and somehow supernaturally, this wife-beater has the ability to control himself from beating up on the football player. No saints, most people just do what they feel they can get away with. My father in the faith, Andrew Wommack, served in Vietnam and he recounts a very interesting and disturbing experience he had: He said that during his time there that there were points where the soldiers were provided with prostitutes, drugs and alcohol and every last person in his division went and partook of these things except him. Some of these guys were professing Christians, were married, had girlfriends etc. Yet because they had a relatively low chance of ever surviving this war and because they knew that there was no way that anyone would ever find out back in the States, everyone compromised and did things that some of them normally never would have done. And do you know why? It was because they knew they would get away with it. You see, saints, we must have resolve and integrity—doing what is right simply because it is right. We should need no other reason or motivation to control ourselves other than this! SPIRITUAL STRENGTH You know, spirituality is having command over our feelings and emotions and learning to do things simply because it is what we are told to do or it is simply the right thing to do. But, church, this obviously takes supernatural strength and inner-fortitude to control the emotions and feelings that like to control us. Proverbs 16:32 is a great verse that echoes this: It says, “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” Like we said with “meekness,” people do not see self-restraint as a strength, but it truly is. A weak person lacks self-control—saying whatever comes up, venting all their feelings, and simply losing control. A strong person controls his or her words & actions—being even more mighty than someone who conquers an entire city. That shows us just how hard it is to “control self,” and why we need the power of the Holy Spirit to walk in this fruit. Perhaps this is the reason the apostle Paul listed “self-control” last—because it is the pinnacle of living a Spirit-controlled life. And our flesh, in my opinion, is the first thing we should aspire to have authority over; not the kingdom of darkness, but our own domain. I once heard Joyce Meyer say that people want authority over demons, but they don’t even have control over themselves when they see a sink full of dirty dishes. We are fooling ourselves to think we can control the things around us when we cannot control this body that we possess. You have probably heard me say before that we are walking in the fruit of the Spirit the most when we feel like smacking somebody and we don’t. That’s actually the fruit of self-control in operation. It is not an absence of “feelings” or a void of negative “emotions.” No, it is the supernatural assistance of the Holy Spirit within us to not feed those emotions and to not act on those feelings. This is self-control—the highest form of personal government one can possess. You know, church, I believe it is no coincidence that the first fruit of the Spirit listed by Paul in Galatians 5:22-23 is “love” and the last is “self-control.” Why? Because I believe that love and self-control are the bookends of being fruitful. If we love—not necessarily feeling a bunch of loving emotions, but as an act of our will express love to people through our actions—and we exercise self-control over these feelings of the flesh, we are well on our way to walking in the Spirit. So, in conclusion, if we want to be completely developed and fully fruitful, then these last two fruit of the Spirit in Paul’s list are necessary. Yes, we want to focus on humbling ourselves and let the Holy Spirit do the work of producing this meek and mild-mannered temperament in our lives. We also want to give attention to producing the fruit of self-control in our lives as well—letting the Holy Spirit infuse strength in our inner man, so that the outer man loses control. This is when, combining our production of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness, we will become a perfect “fruity” man and give the most glory to our Father. Amen!
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REVIEW
So, we have been looking at those nine virtues that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives, known as the Fruit of the Spirit. And these are located in Galatians 5:22-23, where the apostle Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Now one thing we have learned about the fruit of the Spirit is that since these nine virtues manifest God’s character in our lives, we should see that character in the Christian’s life is a major part of what the Holy Spirit is meant to manifest in us. And the truth is, these nine virtues are the fruit that someone is truly living a spiritual life. Yes, as we’ve learned, these fruit are the tell-tale sign of whether someone is spiritual of not. No, it’s not how much we speak in tongues or how many miracles we see in our lives; it’s how much we genuinely love people and how much joy & peace we are producing in our lives. Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit are the fruit of true spirituality. Now in part one of this series, we basically did an overview of these gifts and saw how one bears this fruit of the Spirit in their lives: We learned that the process of fruitfulness was God’s original design. And what Jesus did for us, was not place us back in the Garden, but place the Garden back in us—that is, He provided a way for us become spiritually alive again, and in doing so, the life in the Garden has become our inheritance. Therefore, we are meant to live free from that curse that the First Adam had given to him after his sin—that with labor and toil he would have to gain fruit from the ground. No, now we can freely eat the fruit from the trees in the Garden! But we still need to steer clear from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—that is, the law and trying to “work” in order to be fruitful. No, the Tree of Life—the Cross of Christ—is what has done the work for us. Now we can simply live a life of freedom, producing this fruit by His grace working in us. Amen! Church, this is how the Lord has designed for us to live the Christian life. We are not machines that “work,” manufacturing this fruit. No, we are fruit bearing trees that organically produce fruit for the glory of God. It is not meant to be arduous or laborious. Rather it is meant to be free-flowing, natural producing of these virtues in our life because of Who we are abiding in and Who we have abiding in us. No longer are we to produce fruit through our labor and toil; now we produce fruit simply through abiding in the Paradise of His presence. Amen! We saw that this is what Jesus described to us in John 15:1-8, when He taught His disciples the principle of abiding in Himself, the True Vine. In this parable, Jesus was illustrating to them (and us) what life is to be like in the kingdom—which is, simply a product of staying attached to Jesus and letting His presence produce fruit in us and through us. You see, you never see a branch struggling to produce fruit. In fact, the way this planet operates is that a branch has sap pumped into it from the vine, which forces the branch to produce fruit. Therefore, there is no “white-knuckling” it involved in bearing fruit. The branch automatically produces fruit simply by abiding in its vine. So, this is the foundation of what we are learning regarding the fruit of the Spirit—that this character does not “stem” from hard work, discipline and will power. No, it is produced primarily through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and through the new birth. But what we learned is that there is a reason Paul called these nine virtues the fruit (singular) of the Spirit (lower case or capitalized “s”): We saw that Paul used the term “fruit” singular, which I believe shows us that these nine characteristics of the Spirit are like a cluster of grapes, but the same fruit. Therefore, unlike the gifts (plural) of the Spirit, we cannot say this one has this fruit and that one has that fruit. No, every follower of Christ is expected to produce all nine of these virtues in their life. We also learned that these are called the fruit of the Spirit because they are the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life. You see, you could make a case that the fruit of the Spirit are the fruit of our newborn, recreated spirit just like you can say that they are the fruit of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit within us. The reason being is because he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him. So, if I am born of the Spirit and have been baptized in the Spirit, then the Holy Ghost and my reborn spirit are working together to produce this fruit. Amen! Therefore, if we back up and consider the context of Galatians chapter 5, we discover that this fruit Paul is describing is the fruit of both walking in the Spirit (see verse 16) and being led by the Spirit (see verse 18). In other words, as we live our lives in the realm of the Holy Spirit and are led, directed and guided by Him, these nine virtues will be the by-product. Amen? So, church, just like it was in the beginning when God set into motion the process of fruitfulness, fruit yields “according to its kind.” I like how the New Living Translation says this in Genesis 1:11. It says, “from which they came.” In other words, a fruit tree is only going to produce the fruit, and the seed in that fruit, from the seed from which they came. So, we learned that the reason it is called the fruit of the Spirit is because it is fruit that is according to His kind, or you could say, it is the fruit that came directly from the seed of the Spirit. Therefore, with these nine virtues being called the fruit of the Spirit, they are attributes of God. Yes, saints, by possessing the fruit of the Spirit, we have love within us—but not only that; He is also joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. This is the nature of God, and therefore, is to become our nature as well. So, we summarized all of this in three words—that in order to be fruitful, we must be “born.” We must “abide,” and we must “behold”: Yes, we must first be born again—receiving the nature that contains all nine of these virtues. Then we must yield to the presence and power of the Lord Jesus and His Holy Spirit to where the Lord is infusing us with the supernatural ability to exhibit these qualities in our lives on a consistent basis. That is the abiding part. And finally, we need to behold the One who possesses this fruit and let His example reflect in our own lives. Amen. So, last week, we began studying these nine virtues, but not in the traditional order. We began with two of the fruit sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list— the fruits kindness and goodness. And we first saw that these are sister fruits because they are so similar. However, we saw that there must be a difference if the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to mention them both as two distinct fruit of the Spirit. I said last week that I see “kindness” as more of the attitude by which we do things for people. “Goodness,” on the other hand, is what I believe to be the action accompanying the right attitude that we possess. But my point was that these two fruit of the Spirit work hand in hand. However, here is what we must all agree on: both kindness and goodness are to be produced in our lives seeing as they are fruit of the Spirit. In other words, Paul is describing two virtues that we can see evidence of in one’s life and are not just what a person is versus what they do. No, every believer is called to both be kind and do kind things, to be good and do good things. We saw that the dictionary defines the word “kindness” as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Therefore, I said that I see kindness as looking kind, being kind, and thinking kind—meaning, a person producing the fruit of kindness in their life has a kind look on their face, thinks kind thoughts in their mind, and regularly practices kind actions in their life. And we saw this is exactly how God is kind Himself: Yes, God’s kindness was Him giving us His very best (see Ephesians 2:7). It is the manifestation of His kindness that helps people to change directions (Romans 2:4). So, kindness is not merely an attitude or an intention; kindness is a tangible fruit of God that we have all experienced. We learned that “kindness” describes someone who is useful, manageable, or employed by the Lord. So, if we want to be used of the Lord, then kindness is a great way to do so. We also learned that to be kind is to be motivated by compassion. And we constantly see Jesus doing the kind things that He did in the Gospels because of the compassion that moved Him. We saw from the example of the feeding of the four thousand, that in order to be kind and compassionate, we must be conscientious and considerate. Yes, we cannot only be wrapped up in our own world, only aware of our own needs. No, we must think about others and then, not just think kind thoughts, but act on them. Therefore, the fruit of kindness is an action, not just an intention. It ought to be our faith on display and manifested. Amen? Then we looked at kindness’ sister fruit—the fruit of goodness—and learned that this fruit describes being “beneficial.” Therefore, it paints the picture of a benefactor, which would describe one who possesses great wealth. Therefore, I described bearing the fruit of “goodness” as us being more “generous, liberal and charitable with our finances, time, or energy” like a “benefactor” graciously gives of him or herself to bless others. So, we learned from this that if we are going to be full of the fruit of goodness in our lives, then it helps to receive God’s goodness in our lives. In other words, the more we receive what God has provided, the “gooder” we can become by having the means to meet people’s need and grant their desires. And again, we saw that our Lord and Savior Jesus bore this fruit of goodness as well: We are told in Acts 10:38 that He went about “doing good” and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. So sure, Jesus performed miracles and healed thousands of people during His earthly ministry, but what people don’t talk about as much is all the good that He did aside from those spectacular things. Yes, Jesus bore an abundance of goodness in His life and ministry along with the healings and miracles He performed. You see, we learned that since Jesus had a treasurer, He must have had some money. And we saw that Jesus had a reputation for doing good to those in need at all hours of the day. So, Jesus was apparently bearing the fruit of goodness all the time! And so, we ended last week by learning how both of these fruit do not come by accident. No, kindness and goodness do not just fall on us like apples out of a tree. Like it is with growing specific fruit in our gardens, we have to plan to produce the fruits of kindness and goodness. The truth is—if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. So, we learned how to do this: We saw that we can do this by maybe starting each day asking the Lord to help us be more kind and to be good to the people we come in contact with. Then, we can begin thinking of ways that we can exhibit this kindness to those in our lives. Yes, we can strategically stir up good and kind works in our lives. How? By doing what Hebrews 10:24 says, “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” So, in regard to this, let me ask you: How many books have you read on the fruit of the Spirit? How many studies have you done on the various fruit of the Spirit? I believe we can look at our libraries and see what we are producing in our lives. So, we ought to study up on these things and by doing so, make place in our lives for them. And, glory to God, we saw what the other fruit of doing things like this consistently will be: We will begin producing more joy and peace in our lives as well! Why? Because we are spending more time thinking of how we can be good and kind to others rather than how others can be more good and kind to us. Amen? So, let’s move on this week into another couple of fruit of the Spirit. This week, I would like us to look at the fruits of longsuffering and faithfulness. PATIENCE VERSUS LONGSUFFERING Let’s begin with longsuffering: Now some translations use the word “patience” here, but I like the New King James version’s translation of “longsuffering” better, and here is why: For one, the Greek word Paul used here in Galatians 5:22 (Greek makrothumia) is translated “longsuffering” many more times than it is patience. But the main reason I like the translation “longsuffering” better as it pertains to this fruit of the Spirit is because when you do a word study of “patience” and “longsuffering,” what you find is interesting. You see, almost every time this word for “longsuffering” is used, it is used in connection with someone being patient with someone else. However, with the word for “patience” (oftentimes the translation of the word hupomeno), it is often used in connection with being patient in circumstances. Therefore, I believe that the difference between these two Greek terms is that one (the one that is listed as a fruit of the Spirit, mind you) is patience in regard to people (i.e. makrothumia) and the other (i.e. hupomeno) is enduring circumstances. In other words, I think it is safe to assume that there is a patience that is used with people and that is called “longsuffering” and there is a patience that is used with circumstances and that is called “endurance.” However, while longsuffering is certainly similar in nature to patience, the primary difference between these two virtues is that longsuffering keeps one from anger, wrath, etc. and patience keeps one from moving when the pressure is put on (Greek hupomeno— “staying under power”). So, longsuffering is not moved by negative emotions while patience is not moved by negative circumstances. Now is it incorrect to say that we can be patient with people? Certainly not! But since there are different words that were used in those days to describe how one patiently endures both people and things, I believe it is important for us to have different terms in order to make a distinction. However, based on the verbiage we use in our culture today, a better translation would be “patience” because the term “longsuffering” is not a commonly used word today. But this is where it gets interesting: As I stated already, the fruit of the Spirit which we call “longsuffering” comes from the Greek word makrothumia and comes from two words. The prefix is makros, which simply means “long”, and the other word is thumos, which describes “passionate anger or wrath.” So, when you combine these two words together, you see a person described that takes a “long” time to get “mad” or you could say they are slow to anger. When it comes to makrothumia, I like to use the analogy of a stick of dynamite. But not just any ordinary stick of dynamite, but one that has a tremendously long fuse (i.e. that string that one lights on fire to ignite the dynamite). So, because its fuse is so long, you can “burn” it for a long time before it will ever “explode” on you. Therefore, the believer who is producing this virtue in his or her life is extremely “patient & forbearing” with others. We see this described in Ephesians 4:2 when Paul says, “with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love.” In other words, it is with longsuffering that we bear with one another in love. So, the fruit of longsuffering enables one to bear with others because of their love for them. You see, the lack of being able to “bear” it, is a lack of longsuffering. But again, it is not bearing with them with gritted teeth; it is bearing with them in love. LOVE IS LONGSUFFERING Now as it is with all of the fruit of the Spirit, we can see God in all of these virtues—and that is certainly the case with this fruit. For example, we see in First Corinthians 13:4, the very first description we have of love is that it “suffers long…” And as we have seen, since God is love, then God suffers long. Therefore, a major characteristic of God’s loving nature is longsuffering, or we could say, longsuffering is at the forefront of Love’s characteristics. We see this in Peter’s letters. (And why? Because he was a man who was in desperate need of this longsuffering nature of God. Amen?) In First Peter 3:20, he describes how it was “divine longsuffering” that had God wait in the days of Noah before bringing the flood on the earth. And even with the extreme depravity of man in those days, the Lord gave them an additional 120 years before judging the world. In Second Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” Peter goes on, in this chapter, to describe this “longsuffering” of God as the grace & mercy He gives us until His Second Coming. The fact is, if it were not for this “divine longsuffering,” many of us would not still be here. You see, God in His longsuffering gives us much more time than we can fathom. When OUR patience is running out, HIS is just getting started! Isn’t the Lord described in the Scriptures as being “slow to anger”? Now this is not our version of doing something slowly. For instance, in the Book of Revelation, Jesus said, “Behold I am coming quickly!” right? Now He said that how long ago? Around 2,000 years, right? So, if 2,000-plus years is God doing something “quickly,” what is Him doing something “slowly”? Selah. Romans 2:4 also describes this “divine longsuffering” when Paul said, “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?” We see in this verse that things like God’s kindness, forbearance & longsuffering are the fruit of His goodness. And the point Paul was making right here was that when we bear this fruit, it leads others to change. Thus, the importance of bearing the fruit of longsuffering: it helps others change. For example, Peter talked about how this is one of the ways how a wife can win her husband to the Lord (see First Peter 3:1-2)—by the fruit she’s producing in her life. So, do you suppose if I bear the fruit of longsuffering in my life, it might help convert someone? I guarantee you it can—for it’s the manifestation of God’s goodness (in us and through us) that leads man to repentance. ACCORDING TO HIS POWER Now as we look at God’s fruit of longsuffering and also because longsuffering is a fruit of the Spirit, that means it is not just something we can work up on our own. No, it, like all of the fruit of the Spirit comes from the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life. While there are certainly some things that we can do to help us become more patient with others, such as a changed perspective and a renewed focus (we will look at some of these things momentarily), the fact is that if we are going to produce the fruit of God’s longsuffering, we are going to need help. In fact, in Colossians chapter one, Paul was praying for this church and said that he desired that they be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” (Colossians 1:11). In other words, this prayer was for the supernatural strength and power of God to be poured into a believer’s life which would enable them “for all patience and longsuffering with joy.” So, if you and I are going to produce all of the patience (for every difficult circumstance) and all of the longsuffering (for every difficult person), then we are going to need God’s strength to do it—particularly, in order to be joyful while enduring. So, yes, it is going to take the Holy Spirit’s help in us producing this fruit to the degree that we ought. However, like I said, there is still a part we have to play in producing this fruit. Let me explain: GOOD GROUND FOR LONGSUFFERING You see, like there are certain types of soil that produce certain types of fruit better, there is a particular type of soil that best produces the fruit of longsuffering. Let me give you a couple of characteristics of this type of heart: In Colossians 3:12, the apostle Paul says, “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;” Notice here that there are virtues—one being the fruit of longsuffering—that are “put on” by us. The words “put on” literally describe clothing oneself. And like it is with the putting on of clothes in this physical life, the first step to wearing them is a mentality (i.e. determining what we are going to wear). How many of you went over to your closet this morning and the clothes you are now wearing jumped off the hangers and onto your body? No, you had to choose to put them on. So, just as your clothes didn’t choose you, but you choose them, neither will the fruit of longsuffering choose you; you must choose it. Therefore, in order to wear the fruit of longsuffering in my life, it is going to take a certain attitude and mentality. So, let me give you a couple of things that help one to have the proper mindset to wearing this particular fruit: First of all, in Matthew chapter 18, we see in Jesus’ Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, how the servant goes from asking his master to be longsuffering with him to then hearing his brother pleading the same from him and showing no patience with him. What we can gather from this is that one of the reasons we don’t “suffer long” with others is because we are not being mindful to how “longsuffering” God has been with us. Therefore, it helps me to cultivate the ground of my heart for this fruit by consciously remembering how patient the Lord has been with me and the great debt He has dismissed in my own personal life. The apostle Paul understood this well: In First Timothy 1:16, he described his life & ministry as showing all of God’s longsuffering in order to teach all who would turn to Christ after him how longsuffering God will be with them. In other words, God’s own longsuffering in his life propelled Paul into a state of being longsuffering himself (Compare Second Timothy 3:10). So, both being the receiver of God’s patience and living in the awareness of how much He has suffered long with us is a key to cultivating the ground of our heart, but there are some other good ways of thinking that will help as well: Pastor James uses this same word for “longsuffering” in James 5:7 when he says, “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.” Here we see James using the analogy of a farmer as being patient with his seed in order to describe how we are to suffer long in things. You see, one thing that I believe helps in producing longsuffering is understanding the process of patience. Like it is with seedtime & harvest, we understand that there is a natural process to the time between our sowing and our reaping. And we have seen how children, who do not understand how it takes time for a seed to grow and produce, want to dig those seeds up when it seemingly doesn’t do anything after a day or two, right? But do you have a problem when you plant a seed producing patience and longsuffering while you wait for it to come to maturity. Of course, you don’t. And why? It is because you know there is a process to the harvest coming to pass. Therefore, you are prepared to wait until harvest time by wisdom and understanding. Likewise, I think if we would understand that there is a similar process in sowing & reaping in both our own lives and in other’s lives, we would be more apt to produce longsuffering and patience. For example, if I am dealing with a difficult person, and I know that I am sowing good seed into them, I should know that it is just a matter of time before the harvest comes. And if I believe that longsuffering is a by-product, I know I will reap if I faint not and I am faithful to water that seed. Which leads me to the next fruit of the Spirit that I want us to cover today—the fruit of faithfulness … THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FAITH AND FAITHFULNESS Now for some of us, we have known this particular fruit of the Spirit to be “faith” because this is the way the original King James Version translated it. And while the Greek word here, in fact, is the common word used for faith in the New Testament (The Greek word pistis), in the context here, it likely conveys more of the idea of a person who is faithful. The reason is because we mainly see moral and character qualities being described with the rest of the fruit of the Spirit Paul describes. Not to mention, the vast majority of translations we have today translate this word as “faithfulness” which indicates to me that most Greek scholars lean towards the belief that this particular fruit of the Spirit is describing someone who, through their faith, is reliable and loyal—that is, he or she is trustworthy, dependable, dedicated, consistent and unwavering in their dealings with others. However, I will say that I do not believe there is a big difference between one’s faith in God and faithfulness towards man. Why do you say this, pastor? It is because God’s faithfulness is what we put our faith in. You see, we can only believe a God who is faithful to do what He says He will do and that has done what He says He has done. If He vacillates in His character, how can we depend on Him and know what He is going to do. Therefore, this is why I believe our faith in God is rooted in God’s faithfulness. Likewise, I also believe the faithfulness we exhibit in our lives is a result of our faith in Him. Let me explain: If I truly believe God, I myself will be a reliable and dependable person. I’ll say it this way: if I trust God, I will be trustworthy myself. Someone might ask—How is that? Let me give you an example: if I believe God put me somewhere, then my faith in His assignment will cause me to stay planted there until He says something else. If He has called me to perform a certain task, then I will be dedicated to that calling. On a seemingly smaller level, if God gives me commandments like seek first the kingdom of God with my finances, then I will consistently and unwaveringly be faithful to put the Lord first with my finances. So, one cannot separate our faithfulness in life from our faith in the Lord. Here is a faithful statement and worthy of all acceptance: God’s faithfulness is what our faith is rooted in, and our faithfulness is the fruit of the faith we have in Him. CAN PEOPLE BELIEVE ME? On that note, do you how we could summarize what it means to be faithful? Like so: Can people believe in you? For example, if you told someone you would be there in 30 minutes, do you show up 45 minutes later? If you promised someone you would come help them with something, do you back out at the last minute simply because you didn’t find it convenient? I’m sure we all have failed in areas like this at one time or another, and there is certainly no need for condemnation for our past mistakes—for we cannot change our past, but we can change our future. So, my point is, we need to start today endeavoring to produce more of the fruit of faithfulness in our life until we are perfectly reflecting the faithfulness of God. Yes, church, we need to grow to become a man or woman that does exactly what they say they are going to do (i.e. dependable) and has done exactly what they say they have done (i.e. trustworthy). Again, this is why we are told time and time again in the Bible that God is faithful. In fact, great is His faithfulness! What this is essentially communicating to us is that we can believe in Him. Yes, He will do what He says He will do! For example, we have promise after promise in the Scriptures that tell us that He will never leave us nor forsake us, and that God is always with us, abiding with us forever. Well, if God was unfaithful, then one day He might be there and the next day, He might not. But no, since He is the epitome of faithfulness, then we know He is there even if we don’t perceive Him with our senses. For one to believe that God is not there with them at a current stage in their life is essentially calling Him “unfaithful.” Now I know they don’t like to think that is what they are saying, but that is what we are saying when we believe God is not doing what He said He would do. It’s tight but it’s right. Glory! But we know God is faithful! We know we can put our trust in Him, amen? We know He will do what He said He will do! Likewise, we need to reflect the same attribute of faithfulness in our lives as well. People need to know that we are dependable. Folks need to understand that we are trustworthy and reliable. The world needs to know that we absolutely will not lie to them. And the reason this is so important is because we are the only Bible some people will ever read. We are being read, saints! Haven’t you ever noticed how the ungodly knows when a Christian is being hypocritical? Yes, they know when we are being unfaithful more than we do in a lot of cases. This is why we need to produce the fruit of God’s faithfulness in our lives—so that by people seeing they can believe in us, they can believe on Him. Now again, a faithful person can be described in several ways: For one, he or she does what they say they are going to do. In other words, a faithful person tells the truth—even swearing to their own hurt. Another characteristic of a faithful person is that he or she is always there. In other words, they are going to be there with you through thick & thin. They are not going to quit on you and be quick to forsake you. Yes, a faithful person is a committed, loyal person. On that note, another characteristic of a faithful person is that they are responsible and dependable. For example, a faithful worker is one who not only shows up for work, but does a good job when they are there. THE REWARDS OF FAITHFULNESS And like we see in the world today at many institutions, faithfulness is one of the most rewarded fruit in the kingdom of God. Yes, it is arguably the most lauded fruit that we can produce in our lives. No, it is not necessarily always recognized by man, but it is always praised by God. Do you remember the statement Jesus said He would speak to those servants who served Him well in this life? He said, “Well done you good and faithful servant.” (see Matthew 25:21) This is what we want the Lord to say to us on that Day! This shows us that the fruit of faithfulness is one of the primary things that God is looking for in us, His servants. Yes, church, this is why we want the Lord to say this to us in that Day. This shows us that the fruit of faithfulness is one of the primary things that God is looking for in us, His servants. And the Lord saying this to us on that Day is not the only reward of faithfulness. The Bible teaches us that a faithful man abounds with blessings not only in the next life but in this one as well (see Proverbs 28:20). We are also taught that it is the faithful person who is rewarded with greater responsibilities (see Second Timothy 2:2). Paul himself said that he was called and enabled by God because he was counted faithful (see First Timothy 1:12). So, the Lord obviously considers faithfulness as one of the most essential fruits to being entrusted with a greater stewardship. Thus, He recognizes the good and faithful servant at His Second Coming. And on that note, what is interesting to me about this is these are arguably the two most common virtues God has ascribed to Him throughout the Bible—goodness & faithfulness. Yes, we see hear time and time again that “God is good” and “God is faithful.” So, I believe Jesus will, in essence, be telling His servants this— “Well done you good and faithful servant—for you produced My fruit on the earth. Verily, verily I say unto you what is said of Me— You are good. You are faithful.” So, in conclusion, we need to be mindful that these two fruit—the fruit of longsuffering and faithfulness—are to be exhibited in our lives. Therefore, we ought to keep them before us—first, by focusing on God’s patient and faithful nature and, secondly, by considering them in our own lives. Then, we are making place for them in us. Again, these characteristics of God given by the Holy Spirit are obviously not growing on us like trees. No, they must be pursued—no, not with fleshly energy, but by cooperating with the Holy Spirit within us. Let’s determine to become more faithful, church! Let’s aim to become more longsuffering with one another! For these virtues, while not as esteemed by the church as some of the others, are two of the most rewarding fruit we can bear. Amen. REVIEW
Last week, we began looking at those nine virtues that the Holy Spirit produces in our lives, commonly known as the Fruit of the Spirit. Church, both the gifts of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit are what all of these teachings that we have done this year on the Holy Spirit should point us to—to produce this good fruit in our lives. Yes, what the Lord wills for each of us is that the Holy Spirit would be manifested in and through us. So, again, we are winding up our teachings here in 2019 on the Holy Spirit by looking at the Fruit of the Spirit—that is, the nine characteristics that the Holy Spirit is meant to produce in our lives. We saw last week that these are located in Galatians 5:22-23, where the apostle Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Now by “virtue” of the fact that these nine virtues manifest character in our lives, we should see that character in the Christian’s life is a major part of what the Holy Spirit is meant to manifest in each of us. As I made the point of last week, the majority of Spirit-filled Christians would much rather see signs, wonders and miracles manifest in our lives than these fruit, but these gifts are not the end all. Sure, we need the power. We absolutely need the gifts of the Holy Spirit active and operating in our lives, but not at the exclusion of the fruit of the Spirit. The Bible is clear that it is not our gifts that lets us know that we are born again Christians; the apostle John says it is our love of the brethren (see First John 3:14). The truth is, that these nine virtues are the fruit that someone is living a spiritual life. In other words, these fruit are the tell-tell sign of whether someone is spiritual of not. No, it’s not how much we speak in tongues or how many miracles we see in our lives; it’s how much we genuinely love people and how much joy & peace we are producing in our lives. If you recall, we looked at the example of the Church of Corinth and saw how they had a plethora of gifts, but lacked character, morals, etc. This should prove to us that the presence of gifts is not what makes one mature; the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of true spirituality. So, I say all of this to say, we need these nine virtues produced in our lives alongside of the nine gifts of the Spirit in order to make the kind of impact on this world God has called us to. So, let’s continue this week looking at these verses in Galatians chapter 5. Last week, we basically did an overview of these gifts and saw how one bears this fruit of the Spirit. The first thing we saw is what Paul meant when he said at the end of verse 23— “Against such there is no law”? He was essentially saying, “There is obviously no law out there against the people who produce these nine virtues in their life.” So, when these fruit are being produced in our lives and we abide by them, we are not violating any commandment. Rather, we are actually fulfilling the righteous requirement of God’s law—that is, the royal law of love. And herein lies the difference between the old and new covenants: The law preached “Thou shalt not … lie, steal, kill, etc.” but Jesus preached “Thou shalt … love you neighbor as yourself, love one another as I have loved you, do good, give, forgive, etc.” Let me say it this way: the law said, “Thou shalt not…” and grace says, “Thou shalt love, be joyful, have peace, be kind, do good, be longsuffering, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.” Again, why? Because by producing this fruit, we automatically fulfill the law of God. We don’t have to worry about not doing something because when we, through the power of the strength and leadership of the Spirit, do what is right, we are automatically avoiding the things that are wrong. Amen! Then we backed up to the beginning of verse 22 and noticed that little relatively obscure word at the beginning of verse 22, the word “But.” We learned that whenever you see a conjunction like that used to begin a verse, you need to consider what the author said before it. And in this case, it is clear to me that the apostle Paul was making a distinction between these fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh that he referred to in verses 19-21. And this is a BIG “But,” saints—because there is a big difference between not doing evil things (i.e. the works of the flesh) and doing good things (i.e. producing the fruit of the Spirit)! For example, a religious person might be able to abstain from stealing, but can he or she actually produce joy in their life? Yes, they might be able to boast that they have not murdered anyone, but have they truly loved their enemies? Church, simply not doing bad things is what religion likes to focus on; but true spirituality is fruitful—actually producing good works. “But” the fact is, there is a big difference between how both the flesh and Spirit manifest things in our lives. Paul describes the flesh as producing “works” and the Spirit as producing “fruit”—which again, there is a difference between how fruit is produced versus how something “works” to produce something. We saw that, in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, the works of the flesh are not produced; they are “manufactured.” A machine in a factory “works” and can manufacture a product, but it can never “produce” fruit. Fruit only comes from something that has life and there is not much effort at all in this fruit-bearing process. But when it comes to the word “work,” we think of labor, toil, strain, and effort. This does not mean that the fleshly works are not automatically generated, but rather shows us what comes with the flesh—all of these negative qualities that we associate with “work.” So, the flesh will keep you longer than you want to stay (like work) and pay you what you definitely don’t want to be paid (like most jobs). “But” that is not how the Lord has designed for us to live the Christian life. We are not machines that work, manufacturing this fruit. No, we are fruit bearing trees that naturally (i.e. organically) produce fruit for the glory of God. It is not meant to be arduous or laborious. Rather it is meant to be free-flowing, natural producing of these virtues in our life because of Who we are abiding in and Who we have abiding in us. We saw how the “fruit” of the cursed ground was a product of the curse on mankind after Adam’s transgression, not the blessing God intended for mankind to live in. (See Genesis 3:17-18) So, this laboring and hard work to both produce and maintain the fruit of the ground was a product of the curse, not the blessing. The world has surely modeled this to us as well—for we are trained that with hard work, discipline, and effort, we will be fruitful in life. But not so in the kingdom of God. In it, we are fruitful simply by grace, not works. And this curse came as a result of Adam’s transgression, didn’t it? But this was never God’s plan for man. His will was that we continue to live in a fruitful Paradise where we simply enjoy life with God in the Garden and are not living by the sweat of our brow. And from the physical standpoint, while we certainly still live on the fallen, sin-cursed earth that will one day be redeemed to become the new earth, the fact is that part of our lives has already experienced redemption—that is, our spirits. But we saw that what the First Adam lost through His sinful act, the Last Adam has regained through His righteous deed! In other words, while we had inherited death through Adam’s transgression, through the new-birth, we now have a new inheritance; yes, through Christ’s resurrection we have an inheritance of life. Glory! Amen. So, Jesus did not come to initially put us back in the Garden; He came to put the Garden back in us! What I mean by that is that through the new birth and the indwelling Holy Spirit, paradise has been restored in our spirit-man. This is why the first key to producing the fruit of the Spirit is being born again. Without the new birth, it is impossible for us to produce His fruit—for His seed was never placed in us to begin with. Then how could we ever truly be fruitful? So, the Lord has set things up in our spiritual walk like He did in the Garden. No longer are we to produce fruit through our labor and toil; now we produce fruit simply through abiding in the Paradise of His presence. Amen! Then we saw how Jesus taught us this in John 15:1-8, when He taught His disciples the principle of abiding in Himself, the True Vine. In this parable, Jesus was illustrating to them (and us) what life is to be like in the kingdom. So, we saw that just as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, likewise we are not going to be able to bear this fruit of the Spirit in our lives of ourselves. In other words, our determination, hard work and will-power is not going to get it done. No, in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we have to abide in the True Vine—for apart from Him, we can do absolutely nothing. Now as we’ve learned before, this word “abide” means to stay, live, remain, or dwell. So, what Jesus is referring to here is living in His presence habitually—that is, spending time in His presence on a daily basis. Church, this is the only way to bear fruit—to be consistently connected to Jesus through spending time in fellowship with Him. Then we moved on in Galatians 5:22 and looked at how the apostle Paul specifically called these nine virtues—the fruit of the Spirit. And we noticed that the word “fruit” is singular, in contrast to the “works” (plural) of the flesh. We learned that the fact that Paul uses fruit singular here suggests to us that these virtues/qualities are in unison—perhaps like a cluster of grapes as opposed to different pieces of fruit. We saw how this also serves in contrast to the gifts of the Spirit that are distributed to each one individually to where one Christian might tend towards one gift, and another operates in two totally different gifts. The fruit of the Spirit are not like this because every believer is expected to produce all nine of these fruit in their lives. So, we can’t say what we do with the gifts something like— “I have the gift of tongues, but I don’t have the gifts of healings.” No, we can’t say, “Well, I tend to produce kindness in my life, but self-control is not my fruit.” We need to understand that we all have the same Spirit and, therefore, are expected to produce the same fruit. Amen? So, that is why Paul, through the Holy Spirit, calls these nine virtues of character—the fruit of the Spirit. But then we saw how they are not just called fruit, but are called the fruit of something—namely, the fruit of the Spirit. If we back up and consider the context of Galatians chapter 5, we discover that this fruit Paul is describing is the fruit of both walking in the Spirit (see verse 16) and being led by the Spirit (see verse 18). In other words, as we live our lives in the realm of the Holy Spirit and are led, directed and guided by Him, these nine virtues will be the by-product. Amen? So, if someone is not exhibiting these nine fruit in their lives, what can we conclude? That they are not walking in the Spirit, nor are they being led by the Spirit. You see, church, if one claims to be Spirit-filled and is not producing these characteristics of the Holy Spirit, then something is wrong with that picture. Either God is a liar or they are. Which one do you think is more likely? So, what did the apostle Paul mean when he described these virtues as the fruit of the Spirit? Well, there is a couple of different ways one could look at this: Number one, it is important to understand that in the original language words like pnuema (the Greek word for “Spirit”) did not have capitalized letters. So, in this case, the term “Spirit” was capitalized by the translators. So, was Paul referring to the Holy Spirit here or to our new, recreated spirit? Well, I made the point that I believe it is referring to both, and let me explain why: While the Holy Spirit is the agent by which we have been born again and Who comes to take up residency in our spirit upon salvation, the fact is, if we have been born of Him, then why would our reborn spirit not have the same attributes? Let me ask it this way— since “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (see First Corinthians 6:17) then wouldn’t this fruit of the Spirit also be the nature of our born-again spirits? My point is that it doesn’t really matter whether one believes this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of our born-again spirit. The bottom line is that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that helps a believer produce this fruit in their lives and He does this by giving us the life in the first place and then working together with our regenerated spirit to produce the fruit from that seed that He placed within us. Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life! But Paul meant that since they are called “fruit,” they are the fruit that originates from another source of life. In this case, they have come through the Seed of the Spirit. In other words, as fruit, they grow and are produced in our lives after His (the Holy Spirit’s) own kind. I explained this by looking back in the Book of Genesis: We saw how on the third day, after the Lord created the earth, He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11-12). Here we see how God originally designed fruit to be produced: First of all, we saw that in order for the tree to yield fruit, it must be created as a fruit tree. For example, if the tree is not an apple tree, then what is it not going to produce? Apples! So, the first thing that had to transpire in order for you and I to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is to be recreated as a fruit-bearing tree. And we know that this occurred by the Holy Spirit when we called on the name of the Lord, were born again, and received the new nature we received through the Spirit washing, renewing and regenerating us (Titus 3:5). So, the Lord created things so that a fruit tree will yield its fruit, but notice that it yields fruit “according to its kind.” I like how the New Living Translation says this. It says, “from which they came.” In other words, a fruit tree is only going to produce the fruit, and the seed in that fruit, from the seed from which they came. So, we learned that the reason it is called the fruit of the Spirit is because it is fruit that is according to His kind, or you could say, it is the fruit that came directly from the seed of the Spirit. I don’t believe most Christians have ever considered this—that if these nine virtues are the fruit of the Spirit, then they are attributes of God. It would make sense though—for why would God be producing characteristics in us that He Himself didn’t possess? No, saints, by possessing the fruit of the Spirit, we have love within us—but not only that; He is also joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Now we began looking at these last week, but let me give you a couple of other examples:
Now if we consider the context, we see that Paul was describing the difference between the glory of the Old Covenant and the glory of the New Covenant (which was said to exceed much more in glory [see verse 9]). And he uses the example of Moses putting a veil over his face after He came out of the glory of God on Mount Sinai, describing how the glory we’ve received does not pass away. Now we have had the veil removed and can behold His glory, which results in us being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Now, if you recall, Moses desired to see this glory and the Lord responded that He would make all of His goodness pass before him. Therefore, I equate God’s glory with His goodness. So, if we behold God’s glory, we are seeing His goodness. And here is my point: If we behold the self-control, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, longsuffering, peace, joy, and love of our God, what does this verse say will happen? We ourselves will be transformed into the same image we are beholding—meaning, you and I will begin to reflect His nature that we are beholding. Yes, we become what we behold, church. So, behold His beauty and watch His fruit become yours, in Jesus name. Amen! Just consider your own fruit—your children. How do they produce your fruit? First of all, they have to be born of you—holding your nature. Then by abiding in you—they become more like you through their relationship with you. But what we have just seen is a vital part of them becoming like you—they also bring forth your fruit by beholding you—for as they get to know you, observing how you live your life, they grow to become like you. So sure, it is by being born of those parents and having their nature put in you. Sure, it is by living in the presence of those parents and being raised in their home. But it is also by beholding how those parents do things; that is what produces the fruit of those parents in the child (i.e. fruit). All of this can be summarized in three words— Born, Abide, and Behold: First, we must be born again—receiving the nature that contains all nine of these virtues. Then we must yield to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to where He is infusing us with the supernatural ability to exhibit these qualities in our lives on a consistent basis. This is the abiding part. Finally, we need to behold the One who possesses this fruit and let His example reflect in our own lives. Now since we are not your traditional church, we are not going to study these nine virtues in the traditional order. This week, I want to begin with two of the gifts sandwiched in the middle of Paul’s list, the two we just referred to—kindness and goodness. SISTER FRUITS What is the difference between these two fruit of the Spirit? I mean, they sound similar, don’t they? Well, they are strikingly similar, but there must be a difference if the Holy Spirit inspired the apostle Paul to mention them both as two distinct fruit of the Spirit, right? I see “kindness” as more of the attitude by which we do things for people. Like, for example, in First Corinthians 13:4, we are told that love suffers long and is kind. How many of you know that one can suffer long or be patient with others but have the wrong attitude while doing it? For example, they might put up with or tolerate another person’s tardiness, but at the same time, be fuming on the inside while they are waiting on them. Sound like anyone we know? Don’t look at your spouse😊 “Goodness,” on the other hand, is what I believe to be the action accompanying the right attitude that we possess. Like, for instance, if there was a man who died and, in their will, they left a good portion of their estate to build an orphanage or to do some other benevolent work, how do you suppose those benefiting from him would refer to him? They might say, “He was a good man.” Why? Because we refer to someone as good because of their good deeds (or, fruit) that we see in their life. But my point is that these two fruit of the Spirit work hand in hand. We might describe them as sister fruits, seeing how closely related they are. For example, some of you might describe the fruit of kindness in the exact opposite way—as the action itself and not the attitude—and the fruit of goodness as the inherent quality of a person. But here is what we must agree on: that both kindness and goodness are to be produced in our lives seeing as they are fruit of the Spirit. In other words, Paul is describing two virtues that we can see evidence of in one’s life and are not just what a person is versus what they do. No, every believer is called to both be kind and do kind things, to be good and do good things. No, not to try and earn God’s love and acceptance through their goodness and kindness, but because they have already received His love and acceptance. So, let’s get into each of these this week. Let’s look at both the fruit of goodness and the fruit of kindness. Let’s start with the first one Paul mentions “kindness.” THE FRUIT OF KINDNESS The dictionary defines the word “kindness” as the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate. Therefore, I see kindness as being exhibited in demeanor, action & thought. What I mean by that is the fruit of kindness is to look kind, be kind, and to think kind. In other words, it is produced in our lives by our countenance, our actions, and our mindset. As for other translations of this word, the original King James Version translates this word as “gentleness,” which fits well because to be kind carries with it the idea of being tenderhearted, gentle, and easily touched by other’s needs, infirmities, etc. I especially like the Aramaic Bible in Plain English, which translates this word as “sweetness”—for to be kind is to be “sweet.” Now what does it mean for someone to be sweet? It means that they are pleasant, nice, and to one’s liking. I like that. I think that is a good description of someone who is kind. Now as we have just seen, we know from several Scriptures that God is kind (First Corinthians 13:4). We see in the Bible that His kindness is what God showed us through the giving of His Son (Ephesians 2:7). It is even His kindness (some translations say “goodness”) that leads us to repentance to receive His kindness (Romans 2:4). So, let’s let this be the barometer of what kindness is: In most of these examples of God’s kindness, we see action and not just intention. God’s kindness was Him giving us His very best (see Ephesians 2:7). It is the manifestation of His kindness that helps people to change directions. So, kindness is not merely an attitude; kindness is a tangible fruit that people experience. Let’s look at another place where the apostle Paul encourages this fruit of kindness in our lives: In Ephesians 4:32, he said, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” (Compare Colossians 3:12). The word “kind” that he used here (Greek chrestos) literally describes being useful, manageable, or employed. In fact, this is the same word used by the Master in Matthew 11:30 when He described His yoke as “easy.” This word shows us that the way to be “employed” by the Lord is to have skills in the arena of “kindness.” Therefore, to be kind is to serve—both the Lord and others. Do you want to be useful? Do you want God to employ you for some great task? Then purpose in your heart to be a kind person, fruitful in the area of kindness. This is what makes one fit for us by Him. Amen? But like it is with most of our jobs, this is not a Sunday only vocation. When Paul said, “Be kind to one another,” he was implying being continuously kind. In other words, this is perpetual behavior, not just a one-time performance. I guarantee you your employer wants you doing your job for 40 hours a week, and not just 4 hours, right? Likewise, God wants us to be fit for use in our employment for Him, and He considers this a full-time job, not a part-time one. Now I want you to notice that Paul threads “tenderhearted” together with being kind here in Ephesians 4:32. Another way of describing being “tenderhearted” is to be compassionate and sensitive to the needs and desires of others. So, for this reason, I would describe “kindness” as being motivated by compassion and “moved with compassion.” Of course, we constantly see Jesus doing the kind things that He did in the Gospels because of the compassion that moved Him. There are many examples of this, but one that certainly exhibits the fruit of kindness to me is when Jesus fed the four thousand (plus): In Matthew 15:32, He said to His disciples, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they have now continued with Me three days and have nothing to eat. And I do not want to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way.” So, how did this miracle of the feeding of thousands begin? It began with the compassion that rose up in Jesus. He was observant and conscientious of their need, knowing that they had stayed with Him for three days and that they had nothing to eat—which teaches us an important lesson: In order to be kind and compassionate, we must be conscientious and considerate. We cannot only be wrapped up in our own world, only aware of our own needs. Then, Jesus said that He did not want to send them away hungry because they might not make it back home. Now you understand that this was three days without any food, not three hours. People will say, “I’m starving!” but that’s usually not true. All that is, is their flesh crying out for food. The fact is, a person’s body can go for days without food—and if they had to do something physical like this multitude needing to walk home, we need food maybe a little sooner. But this reminds me of what Pastor James said in James 2:15-16 when he used the example of someone being naked and destitute of daily food and they just send them away saying, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled!” Kindness does not just speak kinds words to people like saying, “I’ll pray for you, brother.” No, kindness is a work (i.e. action). It is not only saying you hope their needs are met, but it is playing an actual part in that need being met. So, this describes kindness as not just the good intentions we have. Sure, kindness begins in the person who is kind themselves. Yes, it begins with an attitude, a mentality and way of thinking, but the fruit of kindness is produced in our lives by some kind of action on our part. Now of course, this doesn’t mean that we are always to do something for someone in need. Being led by the Spirit is the key to every situation, but my point is that the fruit of kindness will move one to be the solution and the answer to other’s needs more times than not. Then, as we are inclined to be kind, the Holy Spirit shows us how we can best serve Him at that moment. Amen? So, my point is, the fruit of kindness is an action, not just an intention. It ought to be our faith on display and manifested. Amen? But not only that, we learn from the end of Ephesians 4:32 that kindness also moves one to forgive. We see this in Matthew chapter 18 when the Master was moved with compassion and forgave his servant that debt. Did you know that kindness is the motivation that we ought to forgive others with? Again, the Lord is this way: We see in First Peter 2:3 where after the apostle Peter encouraged us as newborn babes to desire pure spiritual milk that we may grow up in our salvation, that he said, “if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.” The word “gracious” there is the same word as “kind” in Ephesians 4:32. Again, another time this word for “kindness” is used is in Romans 2:4 when Paul describes the riches of His “goodness” (same Greek word as in Galatians 5:22) that leads man to repentance. Church, this is why this fruit of the Spirit is so important to be produced in our lives. We could say it this way--the fruit of the fruit of kindness is that people will turn to God and receive His goodness. Amen! Which leads us to kindness’ sister fruit—the fruit of goodness: THE FRUIT OF GOODNESS The Greek word that Paul used in Galatians 5:22 denotes being “beneficial.” Therefore, it paints the picture a benefactor, which would describe one who possesses great wealth—a philanthropist, if you would. You see, there is a difference between a beneficiary and a benefactor: A beneficiary is someone who benefits from the wealth stored up by others. Like, for instance, a beneficiary on some type of saving’s account might be a next of kin who is left the dollars that their spouse, parent, or grandparents have personally saved up. Therefore, the benefactor must have something to give to the beneficiary, amen? Likewise, it needs to be understood that in order for us to be as fruitful as we can be in this fruit of the Spirit called “goodness,” we need to openly receive the goodness of God in our lives. In other words, we first need to be benefited by God’s goodness ourselves—like, for example, receiving more resources so that we will have more to give. Then we can be even “gooder” than we’ve been in the past. Therefore, I would describe bearing the fruit of “goodness” as us being more “generous, liberal and charitable with our finances, time, or energy” like a “benefactor” graciously gives of him or herself to bless others. It is also worth noting that we oftentimes use the word “good” in describing food. Like, for instance, if a particular fruit is “bad,” that means it is spoiled, lost its nutritional value, or no longer able to nourish us. Likewise, our fruit needs to remain good, church. That means that it needs to look good, taste good, and satisfy (others) good. In fact, all of the fruit of the Spirit is to consist in this one virtue—goodness: In Ephesians 5:9, Paul said, “for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” The context of this passage is us walking as children of light since we are light in the Lord. So, when you and I are walking as children of light, we will produce the fruit of the light, and its fruit is “in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.” That means that if I’m going about being a liar, deceptive, etc., and not doing what is right and in agreement with God’s standards, then I am not walking in the light. Likewise, if I am not exhibiting the fruit of goodness in my life, then I am not bearing all of the fruit of the light in my life. It is that simple. Now our Lord and Savior Jesus walked in the light and bore this fruit of goodness as well, did He not? We are told in Acts 10:38 that He went about “doing good” and healing all who were oppressed by the devil. Sure, Jesus performed miracles and healed thousands of people during His earthly ministry, but what people don’t talk about as much is all the good that He did aside from those spectacular things. Yes, Jesus bore an abundance of goodness in His life and ministry along with the healings and miracles He performed. You see, Jesus had a treasurer, and this was not just a title given to Judas; no, Jesus actually possessed finances and used that wealth to do good to others. Amen! To where even at the Last Supper, when Judas arose from the table and left, the disciples assumed Jesus had possibly sent him out to give some money to the poor (see John 13:29). Now what is interesting to me about that is this was at nighttime. So, why would Jesus’ disciples have assumed that Jesus might have sent Judas out to give something to the poor? Apparently, it was because Jesus had a reputation for doing good to those in need at all hours of the day. So, Jesus was apparently bearing the fruit of goodness all the time! And why? Because Jesus is God and God is good all the time! You see, over and over, the Scriptures speak to us about the fact that God is good and He does good (Psalm 119:68). And these verses not only tell us He’s good, but some of them show us how He is good. Let’s look at a couple of them in order to learn how we ourselves can walk in His goodness towards others: Psalm 34:8-10 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; Blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing.” When the Holy Spirit begins in verse 8 by inviting us to taste and see the Lord’s goodness, I can’t help but think of this fruit of the Spirit. And this fruit of His goodness can be both tasted and beheld. Then in verses 9-10, we see what His goodness produces in others— “no want, lack, or suffering hunger.” Therefore, when we are good to others what is the fruit we produce in their lives? We eliminate their needs, wants, and poverty. So, again, we see goodness as that gracious benefactor that both meets the needs and grants the desires of those in want. Let’s now look at the 84th Psalm: Psalm 84:11 says, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; The Lord will give grace and glory; No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly.” You see, our good God is described here as a “sun,” and there are not many other physical things that we’ve been given that illustrate God’s goodness more than the sun. James 1:17 describes Him as the Father of lights that gives us every good and perfect gift. So, the sun itself is one of those good and perfect gifts. All we would need to become acutely aware of how good God has been to the human race is have that sun in the heavens burn out. Life would not be good, I can assure you. Not only is God our sun, but he is also our “shield.” That describes Him as our protector. Oh, how much each of us have been spared from!?! But notice what He is said to give—grace and glory. Church, in His goodness, He shares His glory with me. You could say, in His glory, He shares His goodness with me! That’s right! No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly! And what are these good things? Things that benefit and bless you and I. All of His grace and glory work on our behalf to meet our every need. Oh my glory! So, how do we do this? We become their sun, walking as children of the light! We become their shield, offering them as much protection as we can! We grant them the grace and glory that is in our power to give them! And, last but not least, we do not withhold any good thing from them that is in our hand to give. So, all of these Scriptures that illustrate to us God’s goodness teach us that the Lord is the giver of good things—and only things that benefit and never anything that steals, kills or destroys (John 10:10). No, God only gives “good” and perfect gifts, and He does not deviate from doing that very thing. Pastor James told us to not be deceived in this truth. (see James 1:16-17). May it be so with us, church, that as it is with the Lord (see Psalm 34:8), those around us will be able to both taste and see the fruit of goodness in our lives! Amen! CULTIVATING KINDNESS & GOODNESS So, church, we need to know that the Lord expects the fruit of kindness and goodness to be manifested in our lives. But this fruit does not come by accident. Like it is with growing specific fruit in our gardens, we have to plan to produce the fruits of kindness and goodness. Yes, church, we have to plan to produce this fruit in our lives. Like we’ve learned, kindness and goodness do not just fall on us like apples out of a tree. No, they are fruit produced from our hearts. So, we must intentionally and deliberately begin to cultivate goodness and kindness in the ground of our hearts. When was the last time you did this? I mean, when was the last time you sat down and made a plan how you could be more kind and good to someone. If we are waiting to feel like doing it, it probably won’t happen. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. Now we can do this by maybe starting each day asking the Lord to help us be more kind and to be good to the people we come in contact with. Then, we can begin thinking of ways that we can exhibit this kindness to those in our lives. Yes, we can strategically stir up good and kind works in our lives. How? By doing what Hebrews 10:24 says, “consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.” The word “consider” in this verse comes from the Greek word katanoeo and literally means “to think about from top to bottom.” So, when we take the time to think about someone thoroughly, the writer of Hebrews tells us here that we will stir up love and good works. The words “stir up” come from the Greek word that describes a “spurring on or encouraging unto” these love and good works. Now most people interpret this last phrase— “stir up (or, provoke unto) love and good works”—as us spurring one another up or encouraging each other to be more loving and to do more good works, but that can only be assumed. The language only indicates that by considering one another this will result in a spurring on or stirring up of love and good works. So, I submit to you that when we learn to truly “consider” one another, what this will do is stir our own hearts up to loving one another and spur ourselves up unto good works! Amen! Here is a good example of how we at High Point Church can do this: For those of you who are unaware, on the first Sunday of every year, we have what we call “First Fruits Sunday.” This is a day where each person at HPC blesses someone else in the church body. Well, a good, practical way to prepare for that day is to maybe begin saving a little money each month from the beginning of the year. Not only that, but begin “considering” others in the body throughout the year—perhaps by simply being observant as we gather together and seeing who the Lord might have you bless in one way or another. This way you are strategically, purposing to be good and kind. You can do this with your loved ones as well: What I began doing a few years back was observing throughout the year things Shannon and Levi have either stated they liked or I’ve simply observed them showing interest in and then I use a little notes app on my phone to jot those things down. Then, when birthdays, Christmas, etc. roll around, I have a list already put together that I can pick from to bless them. And herein lies another good word of wisdom: Be careful that it’s not always just what you think will “benefit” them; sometimes it needs to be what they believe will “benefit” them too. In other words, think about what will truly bless them the most, not just what would bless you the most. And do you know what the other fruit of doing things like this consistently throughout the year is? You will begin producing more joy and peace in your life as well! Why? Because you are spending more time thinking of how you can be good and kind to others rather than how others can be more good and kind to you. Amen? Finally, the apostle Paul said in First Thessalonians 5:15 (Amplified)– “See that none of you repays another with evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody.” Saints, let us make this our aim here at HPC! Let us be kind to one another, living to do good to each other and to everyone for that matter! We will be the better for it. Amen. REVIEW & INTRODUCTION
As most of you know, we have been camping on the subject of the Holy Spirit throughout this calendar year here at High Point Church. And by now, I hope you can see just how important the Holy Spirit is in our lives—for we have been studying various aspects of Him here in 2019:
So, with that being said, we will be winding up our teachings here in 2019 on the Holy Spirit by looking at the Fruit of the Spirit—that is, the nine characteristics that the Holy Spirit is meant to produce in our lives. Now, of course, these are located in Galatians 5:22-23, where the apostle Paul says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” And by “virtue” of the fact that these nine virtues manifest character in our lives, it should show us that character in the Christian’s life is another very vital part of what the Holy Spirit is meant to produce in our lives. Now I know that if you and I were able to look at our hearts, the majority of Spirit-filled Christians would much rather see signs, wonders and miracles manifest in us than these fruit, but these gifts are not the end all. Sure, we need the power. We absolutely need the gifts of the Holy Spirit active and operating in our lives, but not at the exclusion of the fruit of the Spirit. The Bible is clear that it is not our gifts that lets us know that we are born again Christians; the apostle John says it is our love of the brethren (see First John 3:14). The truth is, that these nine virtues are the fruit that someone is living a spiritual life. In other words, these fruit are the tell-tell sign of whether someone is spiritual of not. No, it’s not how much we speak in tongues or how many miracles we see in our lives; it’s how much we genuinely love people and how much joy & peace we are producing in our lives. This is the fruit of true spirituality. So, I say all of this to say, we need these nine virtues produced in our lives alongside of the nine gifts of the Spirit in order to make the kind of impact on this world God has called us to. So, let’s begin this week looking at these verses in Galatians chapter 5: FRUIT THAT FULFILLS THE LAW First of all, what did Paul mean when he said at the end of verse 23— “Against such there is no law”? He was essentially saying, “There is obviously no law out there against the people who produce these nine virtues in their life.” So, when these fruit are being produced in our lives and we abide by them, we are not violating any commandment. Rather, we are actually fulfilling the righteous requirement of God’s law—that is, the royal law of love. You see, religion loves rules, commandments, and laws. The reason why is because it likes to have boundaries to where it can know what not to do—for then what it will do is strictly adhere to that list of do’s & don’ts. But this religious spirit never addresses the truly important things like why are we doing what we are doing or why are we not doing what we are not doing. In other words, religion remains external, never dealing with the heart. But herein lies the difference between the old and new covenants: The law preached “Thou shalt not … lie, steal, kill, etc.” but Jesus preached “Thou shalt … love you neighbor as yourself, love one another as I have loved you, do good, give, forgive, etc.” Let me say it this way: the law said, “Thou shalt not…” and grace says, “Thou shalt love, be joyful, have peace, be kind, do good, be longsuffering, faithful, gentle and self-controlled.” Again, why? Because by producing this fruit, we automatically fulfill the law of God. We don’t have to worry about not doing something because when we, through the power of the strength and leadership of the Spirit, do what is right, we are automatically avoiding the things that are wrong. This is the more excellent way, church—the way of the Waymaker Himself. Amen! WORKS (PLURAL) VERSUS FRUIT (SINGULAR) Now let’s back up to the beginning of verse 22—for I want you to notice that little relatively obscure word at the beginning of verse 22, the word “But.” Whenever you see a conjunction like that used to begin a verse, you need to consider what the author said before it. And in this case, it is clear to me that the apostle Paul was making a distinction between these fruit of the Spirit and the works of the flesh that he referred to in verses 19-21. And this is a BIG “But,” saints—because there is a big difference between not doing evil things (i.e. the works of the flesh) and doing good things (i.e. producing the fruit of the Spirit)! For example, a religious person might be able to abstain from stealing, but can he or she actually produce joy in their life? Yes, they might be able to boast that they have not murdered anyone, but have they truly loved their enemies? “Negative goodness” is only religious, but producing these fruit are what makes one spiritual. “But” the fact is, there is a big difference between how both the flesh and Spirit manifest things in our lives. Paul describes the flesh as producing “works” and the Spirit as producing “fruit”—which again, there is a difference between how fruit is produced versus how something “works” to produce something. You see, in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, the works of the flesh are not produced; they are “manufactured.” A machine in a factory “works” and can manufacture a product, but it can never “produce” fruit. Fruit only comes from something that has life and there is not much effort at all in this fruit-bearing process. But when it comes to the word “work,” we think of labor, toil, strain, and effort. This does not mean that the fleshly works are not automatically generated, but rather shows us what comes with the flesh—all of these negative qualities that we associate with “work.” So, the flesh will keep you longer than you want to stay (like work) and pay you what you definitely don’t want to be paid (like most jobs). “But” that is not how the Lord has designed for us to live the Christian life. We are not machines that work, manufacturing this fruit. No, we are fruit bearing trees that naturally (i.e. organically) produce fruit for the glory of God. It is not meant to be arduous or laborious. Rather it is meant to be free-flowing, natural producing of these virtues in our life because of Who we are abiding in and Who we have abiding in us. (We will get into much of this momentarily). Now let’s move on in Galatians 5:22 and look at how the apostle Paul specifically calls these nine virtues—the fruit of the Spirit. And I want you to notice that the word “fruit” is singular, in contrast to the “works” (plural) of the flesh. The fact that Paul uses fruit singular here suggests to us that these virtues/qualities are in unison—perhaps like a cluster of grapes as opposed to different pieces of fruit. This also serves in contrast to the gifts of the Spirit that are distributed to each one individually to where one Christian might tend towards one gift, and another operates in two totally different gifts. The fruit of the Spirit are not like this because every believer is expected to produce all nine of these fruit in their lives. So, lest we say something like, “Well, I tend to produce kindness in my life, but self-control is not my fruit,” we need to understand that we all have the same Spirit and, therefore, are expected to produce the same fruit. Amen? THE PARADISE OF HIS PRESENCE But like I just made the point of, because these virtues are called “fruit,” they are things that are produced in our lives, not through hard-work, toil, and labor. As a matter of fact, the “fruit” of the cursed ground was a product of the curse on mankind after Adam’s transgression, not the blessing God intended for mankind to live in. The Lord told Adam— “… Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground …” (Genesis 3:17-18) So, this laboring and hard work to both produce and maintain the fruit of the ground was a product of the curse, not the blessing. The world has surely modeled this to us as well—for we are trained that with hard work, discipline, and effort, we will be fruitful in life. But not so in the kingdom of God. In it, we are fruitful simply by grace, not works. And this curse came as a result of Adam’s transgression, didn’t it? But this was never God’s plan for man. His will was that we continue to live in a fruitful Paradise where we simply enjoy life with God in the Garden and are not living by the sweat of our brow. And from the physical standpoint, while we certainly still live on the fallen, sin-cursed earth that will one day be redeemed to become the new earth, the fact is that part of our lives has already experienced redemption—that is, our spirits. But what the First Adam lost through His sinful act, the Last Adam has regained through His righteous deed! In other words, while we had inherited death through Adam’s transgression, through the new-birth, we now have a new inheritance; yes, through Christ’s resurrection we have an inheritance of life. Glory! Amen. So, Jesus did not come to initially put us back in the Garden; He came to put the Garden back in us! What I mean by that is that through the new birth and the indwelling Holy Spirit, paradise has been restored in our spirit-man. This is why the first key to producing the fruit of the Spirit is being born again. Without the new birth, it is impossible for us to produce His fruit—for His seed was never placed in us to begin with. Then how could we ever truly be fruitful? (I will get more into this momentarily) So, the Lord has set things up in our spiritual walk like He did in the Garden. No longer are we to produce fruit through our labor and toil; now we produce fruit simply through abiding in the Paradise of His presence. (Which leads me to key #2 to bearing the fruit of the Spirit) THE FRUIT OF ABIDING Jesus taught us this in John 15:1-8, when He taught His disciples the principle of abiding in Himself, the True Vine. In this parable, Jesus was illustrating to them (and us) what life is to be like in the kingdom. Now we have camped on this particular teaching of Jesus back at the end of 2018, so I am not going to spend a lot of time on this, but we need to understand that the New Covenant process of fruitfulness is simple, and not arduous. Jesus began by saying, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” (verse 1) Now by Jesus referring to Himself as the “True” Vine, He is apparently implying that there are false vines out there too—that is, there are belief systems, mentalities and philosophies that even good Christians can tend to rely on, thinking they will make us fruitful. But the truth is that there is only one “True Vine” that can supply us with the “Way” to fruitfulness, the “Truth” that makes free, and the “Life” that we desire because Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Therefore, there is no other vine that can cause us to yield fruit that remains. Amen! So, always be careful in both putting your trust in anything or anyone (including yourself) for the fruit you desire to see in your life. No, the fruit of the Spirit that God desires for us to produce comes only through maintaining an abiding relationship with the True Vine, Himself. That is why Jesus went on to say in verses 4-5— “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” So, we see here that just as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself, likewise we are not going to be able to bear this fruit of the Spirit in our lives of ourselves. In other words, our determination, hard work and will-power is not going to get it done. No, in order to bear the fruit of the Spirit, we have to abide in the True Vine—for apart from Him, we can do absolutely nothing. Now as we’ve learned before, this word “abide” means to stay, live, remain, or dwell. So, what Jesus is referring to here is living in His presence habitually—that is, spending time in His presence on a daily basis. Church, this is the only way to bear fruit—to be consistently connected to Jesus through spending time in fellowship with Him. So, if you are like the majority of Christians out there who do not make dwelling in His presence a daily priority in your life, you must do this if you are going to bear any abiding fruit. But the good news is, Jesus said here that the one who abides in Him and He in them will bear “much fruit.” That’s where I want to live, saints! How about you? For as Jesus goes on to say in verse 8, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” Church, our aim ought to be set this high—that we bear much fruit, are considered His disciples, and glorifying the Father as a result! THE SEED OF THE SPIRIT So, that is why Paul, through the Holy Spirit, calls these nine virtues of character—the fruit of the Spirit. But now I want you to notice how they are not just called fruit, but are called the fruit of something—namely, the fruit of the Spirit. If we back up and consider the context of Galatians chapter 5, we will discover that this fruit Paul is describing is the fruit of both walking in the Spirit (see verse 16) and being led by the Spirit (see verse 18). In other words, as we live our lives in the realm of the Holy Spirit and are led, directed and guided by Him, these nine virtues will be the by-product. Amen? So, if someone is not exhibiting these nine fruit in their lives, what can we conclude? That they are not walking in the Spirit, nor are they being led by the Spirit. You see, church, if one claims to be Spirit-filled and is not producing these characteristics of the Holy Spirit, then something is wrong with that picture. Either God is a liar or they are. Which one do you think is more likely? So, what did the apostle Paul mean when he described these virtues as the fruit of the Spirit? Well, there is a couple of different ways one could look at this: Number one, it is important to understand that in the original language words like pnuema (the Greek word for “Spirit”) did not have capitalized letters. So, in this case, the term “Spirit” was capitalized by the translators. So, was Paul referring to the Holy Spirit here or to our new, recreated spirit? Well, I believe it is referring to both, and let me explain why: While the Holy Spirit is the agent by which we have been born again and Who comes to take up residency in our spirit upon salvation, the fact is, if we have been born of Him, then why would our reborn spirit not have the same attributes? Let me ask it this way— since “he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (see First Corinthians 6:17) then wouldn’t this fruit of the Spirit also be the nature of our born-again spirits? My point is that it doesn’t really matter whether one believes this is the fruit of the Holy Spirit or the fruit of our born-again spirit. The bottom line is that it is the power of the Holy Spirit that helps a believer produce this fruit in their lives and He does this by giving us the life in the first place and then working together with our regenerated spirit to produce the fruit from that seed that He placed within us. Therefore, the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of a spiritually alive and Spirit-empowered life! But here is a good point that needs to be understood about the fruit of the Spirit: Our spirits always have these attributes regardless of what we feel in our emotions. Failure to understand this has caused many of us to think we would be hypocrites to express joy when we feel depressed. However, it is only our soulish part that gets depressed. Our spirits are always bearing the fruit of “love, joy, peace,” etc. The truth is, our spirits are never depressed, just our souls. On the contrary, our spirits are full of joy, since that is a fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, we who understand this have the choice of letting our souls depress us or letting the Holy Spirit, through our born-again spirits, release the joy and peace spoken of here. And it works this way with all of the fruit of the Spirit. They are a part of our new nature. So, it is our choice whether we are going to operate out of that nature or if we are going to let our carnal nature dictate what we produce. (This will be a point you will see threaded throughout this teaching as we specifically look at all nine fruit.) But Paul meant that since they are called “fruit,” they are the fruit that originates from another source of life. In this case, they have come through the Seed of the Spirit. In other words, as fruit, they grow and are produced in our lives after His (the Holy Spirit’s) own kind. Let me explain what I mean by us looking back at the Book of Genesis: Do you remember on the third day, after the Lord created the earth, what the Lord said? He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:11-12). Here we see how God originally designed fruit to be produced: And I want you to notice that, first of all, in order for the tree to yield fruit that it must be created as a fruit tree. For example, if the tree is not an apple tree, then what is it not going to produce? Apples! So, the first thing that had to transpire in order for you and I to bear the fruit of the Spirit in our lives is to be recreated as a fruit-bearing tree. And we know that this occurred by the Holy Spirit when we called on the name of the Lord, were born again, and received the new nature we received through the Spirit washing, renewing and regenerating us (Titus 3:5). So, the Lord created things so that a fruit tree will yield its fruit, but notice that it yields fruit “according to its kind.” I like how the New Living Translation says this. It says, “from which they came.” In other words, a fruit tree is only going to produce the fruit, and the seed in that fruit, from the seed from which they came. So, the reason it is called the fruit of the Spirit is because it is fruit that is according to His kind, or you could say, it is the fruit that came directly from the seed of the Spirit. BEHOLDING HIS IMAGE Now notice how we are told in Genesis 1:11— “whose seed is in itself.” Glory to God, saints! Since the Holy Spirit resides in us, we have the seed living in us that will replicate Himself! How many of you know that a tree can only bear the fruit that it was created to produce? Likewise, we are only going to be able to produce the fruit of the Spirit because He is the seed that we have living within us and because of the new nature we have been given. Amen? In other words, these nine fruit of the Spirit are a product of the nature living within us. I don’t believe most Christians have ever considered this—that if these nine virtues are the fruit of the Spirit, then they are attributes of God. It would make sense though—for why would God be producing characteristics in us that He Himself didn’t possess? No, saints, by possessing the fruit of the Spirit, we have love within us—but not only that; He is also joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Let’s look at these:
Now if we consider the context, we see that Paul was describing the difference between the glory of the Old Covenant and the glory of the New Covenant (which was said to exceed much more in glory [see verse 9]). And he uses the example of Moses putting a veil over his face after He came out of the glory of God on Mount Sinai, describing how the glory we’ve received does not pass away. Now we have had the veil removed and can behold His glory, which results in us being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. Now, if you recall, Moses desired to see this glory and the Lord responded that He would make all of His goodness pass before him. Therefore, I equate God’s glory with His goodness. So, if we behold God’s glory, we are seeing His goodness. And here is my point: If we behold the self-control, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, longsuffering, peace, joy, and love of our God, what does this verse say will happen? We ourselves will be transformed into the same image we are beholding—meaning, you and I will begin to reflect His nature that we are beholding. Yes, we become what we behold, church. So, behold His beauty and watch His fruit become yours, in Jesus name. Amen! Just consider your own fruit—your children. How do they produce your fruit? First of all, they have to be born of you—holding your nature. Then by abiding in you—they become more like you through their relationship with you. But what we have just seen is a vital part of them becoming like you—they also bring forth your fruit by beholding you—for as they get to know you, observing how you live your life, they grow to become like you. So sure, it is by being born of those parents and having their nature put in you. Sure, it is by living in the presence of those parents and being raised in their home. But it is also by beholding how those parents do things; that is what produces the fruit of those parents in the child (i.e. fruit). CONCLUSION So, here is what I want you to take away today from this introduction into the Fruit of the Spirit: It is that these nine virtues are not produced in our lives by human effort. They are not walked in through will-power or by any fleshly energy on our part. No, they are a product of being born of the Spirit, walking in the Spirit and being led by the Spirit. All of this can be summarized in three words— Born, Abide, and Behold: First, we must be born again—receiving the nature that contains all nine of these virtues. Then we must yield to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to where He is infusing us with the supernatural ability to exhibit these qualities in our lives on a consistent basis. This is the abiding part. Finally, we need to behold the One who possesses this fruit and let His example reflect in our own lives. So, if you are a born-again believer, these fruit reside in you right now! Now all you must do to see them manifested in your life is stay connected to the source by abiding in fellowship with the Lord and letting the Holy Spirit both rest upon you and energize you. At the same, simply keep your eyes on God, beholding this fruit in His nature. In doing so, you will become what you behold. This is what the Holy Spirit is here to do—to produce His fruit in you. Amen. REVIEW
Now today, I believe we will be concluding our look at the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I want to again reiterate that we are studying this, not to win an argument against the skeptics and not to simply grow in our knowledge of these gifts; we are studying this subject so that we can experience these gifts more in our lives. Yes, we are looking at these nine gifts in order to receive more of a manifestation of them in first our own individual lives and then in our times gathering together. This is why we spent nearly the first half of this series covering three very foundational ways in which we can see more of a manifestation of the Spirit. We then began studying the three vocal gifts (different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy). We spent a little extra time looking at these gifts because the apostle Paul spent much more time explaining them as well: We first looked at prophecy and learned that this vocal gift is different than the office of a prophet. This is a gift of the Spirit that we all should desire to operate in (see First Corinthians 14:1). We learned that prophecy can be defined as a supernatural utterance given by the Holy Spirit in a known language. In other words, it is God-inspired speech that speaks into the other people’s lives to where they are edified, exhorted, and comforted (see First Corinthians 12:3). And, finally, we learned that we can prophecy in several different ways—not just the traditional way of giving a one on one “thus saith the Lord.” We can also prophecy in song, in writing, in preaching & teaching, etc. Then, the following week, we looked at the gift of different kinds of tongues and saw that tongues apparently has different types or classifications. We saw that there are both the tongues of men and of angels according to First Corinthians 13:1—meaning, tongues is not just the ability to speak in another earthly language. So, we learned that while not everyone can speak in the ministry gift of tongues and tongues as a sign to the unbeliever is given as the Spirit wills, there is our heavenly prayer language that all believers have the God-given right to speak in (Mark 16:17). That kind of tongues is the prayer that speaks directly to God and builds us up individually. So, we looked at the myriad of benefits of this type of tongues in our own, individual lives, and there are some awesome benefits to utilizing our personal prayer language. Then last week, we looked at the three revelation gifts of the Spirit and saw that just as the vocal gifts “say” something, the revelation gifts “know” something. Yes, these three gifts see and know things about people, and then enable that person to minister more effectively to the person the Holy Spirit has revealed these things about. We first looked at the gift of discerning of spirits—which, contrary to popular belief, is not a gift of discernment. While every born-again, Spirit-filled believer has a certain measure of discernment, this gift enables us to have insight into the spirit realm and distinguish between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God. And we learned that the reason that this gift is so important to the church is because we need to have the supernatural ability to perceive these spirits in specific situations in order to get better results when helping people. Yes, this gift is important in order to set people free. We need this gift in order to identify the cause of many spiritual, emotional, and physical problems that people experience so that we can get them delivered. But we also learned that not only are we given this gift to be able to distinguish the activity of evil spirits in the lives of people such as sickness & disease, fear & doubt, etc. but we are also given this gift to help us discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So, we can see why this gift is so important in our lives. Then I combined our study of the next two revelation gifts—the word of knowledge and word of wisdom—because oftentimes you will see these two gifts work hand in hand. Again, we saw that just as with the discerning of spirits, many use the incorrect terminology when describing these two gifts. You will hear believers saying that they have the “gift of knowledge” or the “gift of wisdom,” but these gifts are not just natural knowledge and wisdom. No, they are a supernatural “word” of knowledge and wisdom from the mind of God—meaning, they are simply small fragments of God’s vast knowledge and wisdom that are communicated to us as the Spirit wills and for the edification of the body of Christ. Now we learned that the word of knowledge is a fact from the past or present, while the word of wisdom is direction for the present or future. In other words, the word of knowledge is a supernaturally revealed piece of information that either has happened or is happening and the word of wisdom is the direction or guidance that is supernaturally revealed to us for what is happening or what will happen down the road. And we saw that these supernatural statements from the Holy Spirit are not always the obvious, spectacular ones. Sometimes they are extremely subtle and it’s important that we act on or speak out the information given to us. Church, we need these three revelation gifts working in our lives because there are going to be times where simple knowledge and wisdom is not going to be enough to help others and avoid dangers ourselves. We will continuously need the supernatural wisdom, knowledge and discernment of the Holy Ghost to walk in the supernatural life that He has called us to walk in. THE POWER GIFTS FAITH, WORKING OF MIRACLES, & GIFTS OF HEALINGS THE PROMISE OF POWER Now the third and final category of gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to us are what I would call, “the power gifts.” Now this is an appropriate title for certain manifestations of the Holy Spirit because when Jesus prepared His disciples for the gift of the Holy Spirit, He referred to Him as power. We see this in Luke 24:39 when Jesus said, “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.” Notice here that Jesus referred to the Holy Spirit as “the Promise of the Father.” Why does He refer to the Holy Spirit this way? It is because time and time again in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit is forecasted and prophesied as to come. Therefore, He is the Promise made by the Father. But what is He the Promise of? He is the Promise of Power! Hallelujah! Jesus said here that when the Promise—the Holy Spirit—comes from on high, we will be endued with power. The word “endued” means to be “clothed.” And what will we be clothed with? With power! Jesus said something similar in the Book of Acts: In Acts 1:8, He said, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.” So, again Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, what we are receiving is “power.” I say all of this to say that with the Holy Spirit comes power! He is the power of God, and He is the Promise of that power! Amen. POWER WITHOUT MEASURE Now it is important to realize two things regarding the Holy Spirit: Number one, when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit there is a certain measure of power that we all receive an equal measure of. And this is described in Mark chapter 16. Well, when Jesus said what He did in Mark 16:17-18, we must understand that these signs simply follow those that believe. Jesus did not say that these signs are given as the Spirit wills or that only certain believers are given these gifts. No. Jesus said that the following signs of power will follow the believer in Christ. And what are some of these signs that follow us through the power of the Holy Spirit? Jesus said, “In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” You see, all of these signs through the life of a believer are manifestations of God’s power and flow through our lives because God has given us the authority to administer them! Yes, every believer can (and should) cast out demons! Every believer can (and should) speak with new tongues! Every believer can (and should) tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy! Every believer can (and should) be able to eat or drink anything harmful or deadly and it by no means hurt them! And, last but not least, every believer can (and should) be laying hands on the sick and seeing them recover. These things are supposed to accompany every believer in some degree or another and are all a part of the measure of Christ’s gift—the Spirit of Power. However, there is something else that needs to be understood: And that is that there are gifts that the Spirit gives that go beyond this measure. There are gifts of power that He manifests as He wills that are not a part of this list. For example, notice that Jesus says here that one of the signs that follow the believer is speaking in tongues. Now we know that Paul said that one of the gifts of the Spirit is the diversities of tongues, right? Well, as we learned, there are different kinds of tongues that are given to the body of Christ. There is the gift of tongues that is available to everyone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit for their own private devotional time and for their own personal edification. That was the kind of tongues that Jesus was referring to in Mark chapter 16 that is for every believer. However, there are other measures of tongues that are given as the Spirit wills which I call ministry tongues, tongues as a sign, etc. But notice also that Jesus said that another sign that should follow every believer is the laying on of hands—the laying on of hands for the purpose of ministering healing to the body. Now this too is different than the gifts of healings that Paul referred to as a gift of the Spirit. Yes, we all have a measure of the power that enables us to go about doing good and healing all who are oppressed of the devil. Just because God uses one to minister His healing power into someone’s body does not mean that they have a “gift of healing.” So, my point is that while the Holy Spirit has been given to believers to administer healing power, that measure of power is walked in by our faith. In other words, a born-again, Spirit-filled believer can lay hands on people and see the Lord’s healing power make people well, but there is another measure of healing power that does not require faith on either the minister’s part or the one being ministered to’s part. This is one of the things that makes these power gifts “supernatural.” So, let’s begin talking about these “power gifts” by talking about this particular gift of power I just briefly referred to— the “gifts of healings.” GIFTS OF HEALINGS Now again, like it is with most of the gifts we have already covered, there are those who attempt to water down these supernatural manifestations of the Holy Spirit and turn them into natural things. In this case, there are many people who say that the “gifts of healings” are simply those whom God has blessed with the ability to be doctors, nurses, etc. No, no, no! Doctors & medical science are just a natural means of healing. These gifts of healings & other methods of divine healing are a “supernatural,” not a natural means of healing! But notice that this gift is not called the “gift of healing” but rather “gifts of healings.” In other words, the word “gifts” is plural and the word “healings” is plural. So, what does this tell us? It tells us the same thing that the gift of “diversities of tongues” told us—that there are different kinds of gifts of healings. You see, Paul could have called this gift—the gift (singular) of healings—and that would mean that there is a gift that imparts different kinds of healings. And that is partly true. Paul could have also called this gift—the gifts of healing (singular)—and that would have meant that there are different kinds of gifts that bring healing to people. And that would have also been part of the truth of what this gift of the Spirit is. But the Apostle Paul said that this gift of the Spirit is “the gift(s) of healing(s)” (i.e. multiple gifts of different kinds of healings). In other words, this means that Paul is describing different kinds of gifts of different kinds of healings. You see, the same principle exists with this gift as did with tongues. While there are the tongues that every Spirit-filled believer can operate in, there are also other kinds of tongues that only certain parts of the Body can operate in. Likewise, there are different gifts of healings that are given. There is the gift given to all believers where we simply lay hands on the sick and see them recover and then there are the other gifts of healings where people are healed in other ways supernaturally. So, let me explain what this means: It means that just as there are different kinds of tongues that the Holy Spirit gives us—some for one purpose and others for another purpose—there are different kinds of gifts of healings that are used for various purposes. For example, some people may have more success with healing cases of bad backs, where another may have a stronger anointing to heal cancer cases. In other words, the Lord will sometimes specialize on the kinds of healings He will want to do through an individual believer. Now people in the body of Christ tend to err in one or both of these areas: Certainly, there are natural means of healing that we need to be abide by such as eating good and healthy foods and physical exercise. Certainly, there are spiritual laws of faith and expectation that receive healing supernaturally in our bodies. But there is another way. I said, there is another way to receive healing—and it is through the gift of the Holy Spirit called gifts of healings. This is a supernatural manifestation of physical, mental, and emotional healing that overrides natural laws or even spiritual laws. It is a gift of healing given solely by grace. Now many “charismaniacs” who believe in healing tend to err on the side of thinking that since God does still heal today that they can defy these other natural and spiritual laws and be sustained through these supernatural gifts of healings, but so is not the case. God does not want His bride depending on gifts of healings to live healthy and whole lives. He expects us to live by the laws that this world operates on, such as eating right and exercising and also living by faith and believing God to keep us. But these like to flock to healing meetings and get their drive thru breakthrough. They run to the healing evangelist who is certainly used in these gifts but this is not God’s best. Certainly, it is necessary to have these gifts as we will learn but they should not be a crutch that we lean on in our time of need. We must live by the laws of the land in order to eat the fruit of the land. Amen. But this particular gift of the Spirit—gifts of healings—are simply “gifts,” and that means that they are not earned. No, we don’t have to do anything to receive our healing when this gift of the Spirit is in manifestation. This is why you hear of mockers and scoffers who, for instance, go to a healing evangelist’s meeting and end up getting completely healed themselves. And at the same time, you see other people in those same meetings who are supernaturally healed by just worshipping God. There is no laying on of hands. There are no nutritional supplements being given. No, thousands are healed simply through the gift of healing that is on that evangelist’s ministry. But at the same time, those gifts of healings can be lost. We hear of this often—how a person gets healed at a special meeting with no signs or symptoms of the infirmity and then the symptoms return days later. Did that mean that they never got healed? Not necessarily. What needs to be understood is that these supernatural gifts of healings that are given from the Lord must be maintained through our faith, authority, and from just good sound wisdom. Let me give you a couple of clear, biblical examples of the “gifts of healings” in operation: One good example is found in John chapter 5. In this chapter, we see the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda, and in this story, we see how there was a supernatural phenomenon taking place where an angel would come and stir the waters to where whoever got in first was healed. Church, that is a perfect example of one of the various gifts of healings—because how many of you know that it was supernatural, and it was certainly a gift for whoever entered those waters first? But we also see another gift of healing taking place as Jesus healed this man with no apparent faith on his part. You see, Jesus healed thousands of people throughout the gospels but in most of the specific cases of healing, the person who received from Him had faith to receive. But not this guy! Jesus approached Him, initiating the healing Himself. But it was not just Jesus who operated in the gifts of healings (nor was it just the apostles either); we see in the Book of Acts where the Evangelist Philip (not to be confused with the apostle Philip) preached in Samaria. In Acts 8:5-7, we are told— “Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them. And the multitudes with one accord heeded the things spoken by Philip, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came out of many who were possessed; and many who were paralyzed and lame were healed.” Notice that here in Samaria, Dr. Luke makes specific mention that those who were paralyzed and lame were healed. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that people with other infirmities were not healed, but by specifically mentioning this shows me that there was a gift of healing in operation here because Philip was apparently super successful with healing those who were lame and paralyzed. Now on that note, I believe that we can see here that oftentimes it is the office of an evangelist that tends to operate in the gifts of healings along with the next gift we are going to look at, the working of miracles. I believe it is possible that we can see this in First Corinthians 12:28. WORKING OF MIRACLES Now regarding the working of miracles, this gift is very important as well. Therefore, we need to expect this gift of the Spirit to be manifested in our lives, churches, and ministries to the same degree that we expect tongues, prophecy, etc. The Holy Spirit recently showed me something profound: He showed me how the majority of the Spirit-filled, charismatic community believes in the gifts of tongues & prophecy. We teach it. We expect it. And guess what? We walk in it. Well, what if we began to teach in this working of miracles with the same conviction? What if our churches began to expect that when someone is baptized in the Holy Spirit that miracles were to naturally become a part of their life like we believe these vocal gifts come? Do you suppose we might experience more of a manifestation of miracles in our churches? I guarantee you that we would! But you see, many believers have the notion that miracles are a greater category of gift than the others. They believe in their heart that they are rarer than all the rest of the gifts. But this is simply not true. Miracles are to be as common in our lives and ministries as any other manifestation of the Holy Spirit. But, again, why aren’t they? It is because of our unbelief. It is because we have categorized miracles as infrequent and, in many cases, obsolete. And I’ll give you a good example of this: We all have experienced the greatest miracle in our life the day we were born again. There is no greater miracle that we can witness and experience than the salvation of our soul. I mean, for God to replace our dead spirit with the spirit of Christ and thereby washing us of all our sins and making us the righteousness of God in Christ. Friends, there is no greater miracle than this! Most would consider someone being raised from the dead as the greatest miracle if asked. But I tell you—the greatest miracle is the raising of our spirit from the dead! Hallelujah! But I can assure you that if we truly believed that God can work a miracle as much as we believe He can save a soul, we would see too many miracles to count. Let me say it this way, if we believe we can see the dead raised as much as we can see a sinner saved, we would see the dead raised. It is just that simple. Jesus actually taught this same principle in the instance of the healing of the paralytic man who was let down through the roof by his friends (see Mark 2:1-12) Do you remember the response of the religious leaders when Jesus looked at the man and said, “Man, your sins are forgiven you”? The Bible teaches us that when they reasoned in their hearts saying “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” that Jesus, perceiving the thoughts of their heart, answered and said to them—“Which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you.’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’? Well, the answer is found in Jesus’ point—that one is no easier than the other! Now, of course, Jesus was making the point that He had the authority to speak on behalf of His Father and offer forgiveness, but I want you to see that the complete restoration of movement in the body of a paralyzed man is just as easy to see as the forgiveness of one’s sin. Amen! In fact, it is actually quite amazing that we more readily believe in forgiveness than we do miracles in the natural realm. But do you know why? It is because we cannot see the forgiveness and salvation. Therefore, we are not tempted to walk by sight because we cannot see it. Physical and natural miracles, on the other hand, are seen. Therefore, we have more of an opportunity to have unbelief. But we don’t have to! I said, we don’t have to! We can get to the place where it is not only just as easy to say, ‘Rise up and walk’ as it is to say, ‘God will forgive you right now’; we can get to the place where it is just as easy to see someone rise up and walk as it is to see someone forgiven of their sins. Amen and Hallelujah! So, what is this gift of the Spirit Paul called the “working of miracles”? The “working of miracles” is a supernatural intervention by God in the everyday, ordinary course of nature. In other words, this gift of the Spirit is God, through the Holy Spirit, interrupting the natural laws governing this earth. For example, a miracle would be things we see in the Bible like the parting of the Red Sea, the sun standing still, the floating ax head, (good) earthquakes that open prison doors and unlock chains. Now it should be noted here the terminology: Paul called this gift— “the working of miracles.” Actually, this word used to translate “working” is the same word used in First Corinthians 12:6 when Paul said that there are diversities of “activities” but the same God who works all in all. As we have already seen, this means that there are different ways that God works through the various gifts and ministries given to the body. In fact, these are the only two times this Greek word energema is used in the New Testament. So, what does this teach us about this gift of the Spirit? It teaches us that what comes before the miracle is an activity or a working. What do I mean by that? I mean that there is an action or a work of faith that always precedes the miracle. This is why I believe that the gift of faith usually works hand in hand with the working of miracles. Why? Because there is usually a supernatural, special faith that is deposited in the heart of someone before they step out and see the miracle. But let’s look at the first miracle that our Lord and Master ever performed because it shows to us how this gift of the Spirit comes forth: In John 2:1-11 we have the account where Jesus turned the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Well, this is no doubt a manifestation of the gift of the Spirit called the working of miracles because for water to be supernaturally turned into wine is certainly a change in the natural course of nature. But what we need to understand is that there was certainly a “working” that preceded this miracle. First, we have the words of Mary, the mother of Jesus, exhorting the servants with the words— “Whatever He says to you, do it.” You see, herein lies the key to miracles: It is in simply doing what the Lord tells us to do—no matter how strange, no matter how impractical, no matter how unorthodox, no matter how inconvenient! No matter what; just do it! (Sorry Nike; this started with Mary 😊) Well, in this case, Jesus tells them to fill the six water pots of stone up with water. How ridiculous does this sound? Why? They need wine, not water! This would be a waste of time, and we need to be looking for wine, not playing in the water! All of this would be normal, natural thoughts that a person might have if told to do what Jesus told these servants to do. Well, it would also be the mentality of the person who did not see the miracle too. You see, there has to be some sort of cooperation between us and God for the miracle to occur. He will tell us to do certain things that just don’t make sense in order to position us for a miracle. But if we don’t “just do it” then we won’t “just see it.” It is that simple. In fact, if you look at the instances of most miracles recorded in the Bible, you will find that there were some pretty strange directions given that led to the miracles like “Go dip in the Jordan seven times! Throw a stick in the water! Stretch out your rod! Strike the rock! Speak to the rock!” On and on and on, you see God giving specific directions and when those directions were followed—leprosy was cleansed, axe heads floated, plagues came upon God’s enemies, and water came out of the rock. There was a cooperation, and then, there was a demonstration! And why? It is because God requires faith! Faith always precedes miracles! There is to be a working on our part—not just “works” but the “works of faith” (First Thessalonians 1:3)—and when there are those corresponding actions of faith that are based on what God has said, then we see miracles. Amen! SPECIAL FAITH And this leads us to this final power gift of the Holy Spirit: the gifts of the Spirit simply called “faith.” Now many see this gift of the Spirit called, in the King James Version, faith, and say, “See, not all have faith. It is a gift of the Spirit.” Well, that is not completely true. You see, there is a difference between our own faith and this gift of faith that the Holy Spirit gives: For instance, in Second Peter 1:1, Peter addresses his letter “to those who have obtained like precious faith” with him and the others who had called on the name of the Lord. What this means is that every believer has obtained faith, and not only just any faith, but faith that is of the same value and of equal specialness to that of even the great apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ! Wow! Now that is awesome stuff! So, yes, we all have a measure of faith (see Romans 12:3)—not just some of us. So, we all have faith, and this faith is capable of growing exceedingly (see Second Thessalonians 1:3). We all have the capability to walk in mountain-moving, devil-stomping, life-changing faith! But this gift of the Spirit differs from the measure of faith that we have all received in that it is a supernatural endowment of special faith that transcends what we could receive with our own faith. You see, as we have seen, our faith grows. We have all obtained like precious faith—having received the measure of faith. But that does not mean that we have all arrived at the place of mountain moving faith. We must let our faith grow by first hearing the Words of faith and then by putting it into practice by exercising our faith. But sometimes there is a need for us to be at the place where we have not arrived through natural progression. Sometimes we need greater faith to be dropped into our hearts so that we can receive something for either ourselves or for someone else like we need the gifts of healings when we might not be at the place physically and spiritually to receive healing ourselves. And there is another faith that can be had that far transcends where our faith is at. This faith can remove the largest of mountains, create planets, and give life to anything that needs it—and this is God’s faith! Friends, I can assure you, there will be times that our own levels of faith in the Lord will not be enough to get the job done with what He may be asking us to do for Him. Here is an example: Say God has been manifesting a gift of healing through you from time to time to heal a few minor ailments or illnesses on a few people. Your confidence and faith levels are then starting to build up because God is now starting to use you in this manner and you now have had a few good successes on these smaller illnesses. But then all of a sudden God tells you to walk up to a paraplegic, lay hands on him, and then command him to get out of his wheelchair and start walking. All of a sudden you can immediately sense in your mind and in your spirit that your own levels of faith are not going to be good enough or high enough to try and do this, as you have never tried to heal someone of something this heavy before. And this is where the Holy Spirit will now be moving in big time so this miracle can be fully accomplished for the Lord. The Holy Spirit will then manifest His own divine faith in you so you can now believe and operate on that faith—so you will now have the actual courage to walk up to this person, lay hands on him, and then tell him to get out of that wheelchair and start walking. Sometimes it will take higher levels of faith to receive a major miracle from the Lord, and where our faith levels will not be high enough or good enough to be able to do this, this is where the direct faith of the Holy Spirit Himself will then move up in us and pick up the slack with our own imperfect faith levels so God can then manifest the miracle that He will be looking to do through us. Sometimes God may ask you to do something that will be out of your comfort zone. Fear and panic will immediately set in because you have never done what He is now asking you to do. This is when the Holy Spirit is needed to step in and give you another measure of God’s faith to help. You know, it shouldn’t even need to be said, but there is a BIG difference between where we are at in our faith and where God is in His faith—A HUGE DIFFERENCE! I mean, have you spoken any planets into existence lately? Of course not! Well, that is why this gift of faith is needed: It is because there are times in our life when we either personally need help in believing for something or when we need to operate at a greater level of faith for the benefit of one that we are ministering to. And this is what this gift of faith is—It is a temporary impartation of His faith. Amen! In other words, it is the gift of faith by God taking a little amount of His faith and giving it to you for a specific situation. Picture it like this: You have faith and God has faith. He obviously has a lot more faith than you and I do. So, this gift of faith is God taking a small portion of His faith and giving it you to borrow temporarily. Amen! Isn’t that awesome!?! This is why I do not like to just call this gift of the Spirit—faith. I like to call it special faith—that is, faith that is different than our own faith which we have received. It is a temporary borrowing of God’s wonder working faith (see the Amplified Bible’s translation of First Corinthians 12:9) so that we can operate at a higher level than we are at at that time. Hallelujah! Now concerning some New Testament examples of the gift of faith in operation, it is difficult to put a finger on one because, like I said, there is our own faith that can move mountains if it is fed & cultivated. So, when it might be a gift of faith versus our own faith, we can only speculate. But a good rule of thumb would be to continuously work on growing our faith while also believing God for this gift of faith in the times where we need it. Amen? Again, our faith—that is, the faith that has been put into every born-again believer and the faith that we walk by everyday—this faith comes by hearing. Romans 10:17 tells us this. This gift of faith, however, does not come by hearing—nor does it come by any effort on our part. It is completely a gift. This means it does not have anything to do with us. The development of our faith certainly does have to do with decisions we have made, but the gift of faith operating in our lives has only to do with our decision to hunger after it. And as I have repeated time and time again throughout this series, we have been on for some time, hunger is the key to seeing the manifestation of these power gifts in our life, but not only just these power gifts, but all of the gifts of the Spirit. THE FRUIT OF HUNGER In Acts chapter 4, we have the account of the church gathering together after Peter and John were threatened by the chief priests and elders. Well, we see in this passage of Scripture how, when they knew they had a need for God’s help, they gathered together and raised their voice in one accord. You know, while things like prayer can certainly be done in vain and outside of faith, they can also be done in great faith and as an expression of this hunger that I am talking about. Fasting is a good example of this. There is not really any power in the fact that we are not physically eating (except, of course, the health benefits of this), but the power that can come through fasting is in the hunger. No, I am not talking about the physical hunger that comes as a result of fasting; I am talking about the hunger in our hearts that provokes the fasting to start with. Amen! So, the fact that this church began seeking the Lord and lifting up their voice in one accord was proof positive that they were hungry for His gifts and totally dependent on Him. And they specifically prayed that the Lord would grant them boldness to speak His Word by stretching out His hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of His holy Servant Jesus. Amen! Friends, what they were praying for here were the power gifts—the gifts of healings and the working of miracles to be accomplished by the boldness received through the gift of special faith. And look what happened next! “And when they had prayed, the place where they had assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.” Saints, you know you are praying right when God starts shaking the house! But it all began with hunger! And this is a major point that I believe the Holy Ghost is trying to get through to us through both this message today and also through this entire series! I want you to take the things that have been reported to you here at High Point Church on these Sunday mornings and take them home with you. Go, therefore, and begin to seek God with your family, seeking after the manifestation of this power. It can be had by all—by all who seek after Him with all of their heart. And this is what happened here: In verse 33 we see that with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. And that is my prayer for all of you—that all of us would experience great power through our lives and ministries and give witness to the power of His resurrection. Great grace be upon you all. Amen. REVIEW
So, today, we will continue in our study of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And again, we are not studying this for theological purposes or to win an argument with someone. We are studying this to, prayerfully, receive more of a manifestation of these nine gifts of the Spirit in, first, our own individual lives, and then in our assemblies. Therefore, we spent the first three weeks of this series covering three very foundational ways in which we can see more of a manifestation of the Spirit. And they are as follows:
And what are these manifestations of the Spirit? They are listed by Paul in First Corinthians 12:8-10 when he says, “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” Now, as we’ve seen, these nine gifts of the Spirit can be broken down into three groups of three:
We first looked at prophecy and learned that this vocal gift is different than the office of a prophet. In other words, like one is able to teach the Scriptures but that doesn’t mean they are in the fivefold ministry office of a teacher, we all can be used in prophecy but that doesn’t make all of us prophets. We saw that prophecy can be defined as a supernatural utterance given by the Holy Spirit in a known language. In other words, it is God-inspired speech that speaks into the other people’s lives to where they are edified, exhorted, and comforted (see First Corinthians 12:3). And the reason I add to this definition of prophecy “in a known language” is because tongues is almost identical, however, it is a supernatural utterance given by the Holy Spirit in an unknown language—meaning, tongues also provides edification, exhortation, and comfort, but it does this for us, not others. This is why the apostle Paul spent the time he did exhorting the church to desire that they may prophecy and not just to speak in tongues only. It is because our heart’s aim should be to build others up in love, which is what prophecy does. And we learned that we can prophecy is various ways. It is not just one on one, “words” that we give and receive. No, we can prophecy in song, in writing, in preaching & teaching, etc. So, what we learned is that, like with all the gifts, we need to desire that we may prophecy more and then step out and begin stewarding this gift in our lives by opening our mouth and letting God fill it with His words. Yes, we can begin to sing more! We can begin to write more! We can begin praying for others more! This is turning on the valve and letting those rivers of living water flow up out of our bellies and out of our mouth. Amen. Then, last week, we looked at the gift of different kinds of tongues and saw that this gift has different types or classifications. We saw that there are both the tongues of men and of angels according to First Corinthians 13:1—meaning, tongues is not just the ability to speak in another earthly language. If it were, then Paul would have never said in First Corinthians 14:2 that when someone speaks in an unknown tongue that they are speaking to God and no man understands him. Amen? No, while there certainly is another type of tongues that supernaturally speaks in other earthly languages, there is also that heavenly prayer language that everyone who believes the gospel can speak in (Mark 16:17). And so we saw that there are, in my estimation, three different classifications of tongues: Number one, there is the tongues that are meant to be a sign for the unbelievers. In other words, this is the tongues that they spoke in on the Day of Pentecost and everyone heard them speaking in their own native tongue. It was a sign for those to testify that God was among this group in the upper room which led to many becoming born again. Number two, we have the ministry gift of tongues—that is, the ministry office of tongues that not everyone can operate in. We saw that this was the type of tongues Paul referred to in First Corinthians 12:30 when he asked the question— “Do all speak with tongues?” Obviously, not everyone speaks in this type of tongues, nor does everyone operate in the interpretation of those tongues. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t all speak with the third type of tongues that speaks directly to God and builds us up individually, nor does that mean that we can’t all also desire that we might interpret our own tongues so that our understanding of what we are praying isn’t unfruitful. And we looked at the myriad of benefits of this type of tongues in our own, individual lives. It is awesome stuff, church! So, now that we have looked at the vocal gifts, let’s move on to what I would call the “revelation” gifts. The reason I call them this is because the following three gifts “know” something. Yes, they see and know things about people, and then they enable us to minister more effectively to the person the Holy Spirit has revealed these things to us about. So, let’s look at these three revelation gifts in detail and learn more about what we should be desiring to see happening in our lives. THE REVELATION GIFTS WORD OF KNOWLEDGE, WORD OF WISDOM, & DISCERNING OF SPIRITS I would like to begin with the gift Paul called “discerning of spirits.” DISCERNING OF SPIRITS Now notice that Paul did not call this gift, “the gift of discernment.” You will hear this phrase thrown around many Christian circles, but it is important to realize that the Bible makes no mention of a “gift of discernment.” Sure, there is a certain degree of spiritual discernment that every believer has the ability to walk in where the Holy Spirit shows us things, but my point is that there is no mention in the Scriptures regarding a gift of the Spirit called “the gift of discernment.” What many refer to as a gift of discernment that they possess is really just a knack for criticism and fault finding. They like to spiritualize their vice by saying, in their arrogance, that it is a gift that God gave them. No, friends, no one has a gift of discernment, but some do operate in the gift of the discerning of spirits. So, what is this gift of the Spirit? Well, notice the terminology used in the New King James version: Paul called “the discerning of spirits.” Most other translations say that this gift is the supernatural ability to “distinguish between spirits.” Therefore, the discerning of spirits is the supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit which enables us to have insight into the spirit realm and distinguish between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of God. You see, the word “discerning” comes from the Greek word diakrisis which means to “distinguish, differentiate, or pass judgment.” But, like we said, it is not a gift that gives one the ability to pass judgment on people. No, it is the ability to be able to correctly judge something behind the curtain of the spiritual realm, which could certainly be a spirit motivating and inspiring a person. Church, we need to understand that the spiritual realm is more real than this physical realm that we live in and can contact with our five physical senses. In fact, God created the natural world through the spiritual world. So, we should be able to accept this truth that the spirit world is more real than the natural because the spirit world is the parenting force. But my point is that the spirit world is very real and, in this world, there are angels in abundance and demons on every corner. In fact, if our eyes were to be opened to see clearly into the spirit realm, our jaw would likely hit the floor. We would see the most giant and majestic angels encamped around us, but we would also see the most ugly and vile demons as well. This is the real world out there, saints—and God has given us the ability through this gift of the Spirit to perceive these spirits in specific situations. And someone might say, “Well, Trey, I’ll pass on this gift. I’d rather not see anything that would scare me like this.” But do you think that this gift is given to freak us out? No, God gives us this gift of discerning spirits because He wants to help us and help others. You see, this gift is important in order to set people free. We need this gift in order to identify the cause of many spiritual, emotional, and physical problems that people experience so that we can get them delivered. For instance, this gift is extremely useful in the area of deliverance and healing. Sometimes in these situations, it is extremely important that we are able to discern a specific spirit that is causing their afflictions so that we can speak to the specific mountain that is keeping them in bondage. I am convinced that the reason that some stay sick or stay afflicted is because the one doing the ministering has not correctly identified the root cause and are praying amiss and are taking authority over the wrong things. Friends, we need this gift in order to distinguish what we are specifically taking authority over so that we can have better results when we pray. You see, sometimes the person might be experiencing panic attacks or extreme anxiety because there is a spirit of fear that has attached itself to them. Sometimes a person might be in bondage to a certain lust of the flesh because they are bound by a spirit of lust. This is why it is so important to be able to discern the activity of a spirit in a person’s life. It is because in both of these situations the world and the church have their own ideas as to what the person is dealing with. For instance, with the anxiety, the world will just immediately label the person with some mental medical condition and try to band-aid the problem with medicine. Well, there might be a medical condition involved because people can certainly be sick mentally and emotionally like they are sick physically but sometimes people’s condition is a result of demonic activity. Likewise, in the church, if a person is dealing with a bondage to any lust of the flesh, we immediately say the problem is their flesh. But we need to understand that sometimes a spirit can be involved. Sometimes the problem can be an unclean spirit that is causing the unclean lusts. Now this same principle applies to physical sickness as well. How many times do you see Jesus, when praying for a sick person, identifying their physical infirmity as some kind of spirit? He referred to some as a spirit of infirmity, a deaf spirit, a dumb spirit, etc. My point is that sometimes in order to get the correct results when praying for the sick, we need to be able to discern any spirit that might be involved in the sickness. Sometimes I think we just lay hands on people and pray for their healing when maybe we should be casting a spirit of infirmity out of them. I believe that it is much rarer that it is a spirit which is at the root of a sickness, but we see it sometimes in the ministry of Jesus nonetheless. But not only are we given this gift to be able to distinguish the activity of evil spirits in the lives of people such as sickness & disease, fear & doubt, etc., but we are also given this gift to help us discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Let me explain: Matthew 24:24 says that in the end times, if it were possible, even the elect will be deceived by what the Apostle Paul called “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons” (First Timothy 4:1). Well, it would not be possible for us to be deceived by these evil spirits if we operated in this gift of the discerning of spirits. Now let me say this but, with some doctrines and teachings, we do not necessarily need this supernatural gift to discern bad doctrine. I mean when someone is constantly making an appeal for your money by using strange methods like “If you sow $100 into my ministry then in 100 days God will bless you.” All you need to discern the error in that is just a little common sense (i.e. natural discernment). But some error is much more deceptive than that and you will need to be operating in this gift to be able to discern it. The reason why is because Satan is very sly and, as Paul told us, he knows how to transform himself into an angel of light and a minister of righteousness in order to slip error into our lives. In First John chapter 4 we have the Apostle John’s take on this. So, there are ways in which all believers can spiritually discern between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error, but in some cases, we will need this supernatural gift of the spirit to be able to discern the activity of a wrong spirit lacing the truth with lies. So, this gift of the discerning of spirits is the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to differentiate between spirits (i.e. as we have just seen—being able to discern the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit of error). It is also the supernatural ability of the Holy Spirit to be able to distinguish a spiritual presence behind a situation, action, or message—meaning, we can perceive the presence of good and evil spirits behind a peculiar circumstance. It is a knowing in your spirit that comes by supernatural revelation concerning the source, nature, or activity of any spirit. The discerning of spirits is a supernatural gift given at any particular moment that enables one to discern the presence of any spirit and to differentiate between what type of spirit is behind something like a situation or words (i.e. an affliction or a message). THE WORD OF KNOWLEDGE & THE WORD OF WISDOM Now I am combining our study of the next two revelation gifts because oftentimes you will see these two gifts work hand in hand. Usually the word of knowledge will be given and then the word of wisdom will follow. However, this does not mean that you cannot operate in one independent of the other. But the fact is, they are so similar in how they operate that it makes sense to talk about them together. Now, again, the terminology is important here: Just as we saw with the discerning of spirits, many use the incorrect terminology when describing these gifts. Yes, you will hear believers saying that they have the “gift of knowledge” or the “gift of wisdom.” But these gifts are not just called knowledge and wisdom; they are called the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. So, these gifts of the Spirit of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom are not just natural wisdom or knowledge that one can accumulate. No, they are a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom that are given supernaturally by the Holy Spirit. So, what does this mean? Well, first of all, we need to understand that they are both a reference to the knowledge and wisdom of God: now we know that God is omniscient. This means that He knows everything. He is all-knowing. We also know that God possesses all wisdom as well. True wisdom comes from God. The Scriptures say specifically that God alone is wise. So, when Paul says that the Spirit will give us the gifts of a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom, this means that He will give us, of the complete knowledge and total wisdom that He possesses, a word of that knowledge and a word of that wisdom. Amen. A great example of this is with the word of knowledge: The Greek word used for “knowledge” here is the word gnosis. This word describes a complete or thorough understanding of a subject. We see this word used in Ephesians 3:19 in reference to Paul’s prayer for this church to know the love of Christ. He prayed in the first half of this verse that we would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. This seems like an impossible statement, does it not? How can you know something that passes knowledge? Well, the key to understanding this is in understanding the difference between the Greek words for “know” and “knowledge.” The word “know” comes from the Greek word ginosko which literally describes an experiential knowledge. Ginosko was more of a broad, general knowledge than the word that was used for “knowledge” here. Can you guess what the Greek word Paul used for “knowledge” here is? You guessed it! It is the same word gnosis as he used in the word of “knowledge.” So, when Paul prayed that these saints would know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, he was praying that they would experience the love of Christ that could never be fully comprehended. In other words, He wanted them to taste in their minds just a bite of the love of God that they could never fill themselves up on. In essence, we could say that Paul was praying for them to have a word of knowledge concerning the love of Christ because he was saying, “Hey guys, you’ll never be able to completely exhaust the knowledge of God’s love, but I’m praying that you’ll get a word of the knowledge of His love!” In other words, he was praying that they would get a word of that knowledge. He was praying that they would taste and see that the Lord is love and He is good. And that is exactly what the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom are. They are simply “words” that are given to us in specific and strategic moments that originate from the complete knowledge and understanding of the all-knowing and the alone wise Creator of all things. And, no, I am not referring to “word” as in He only gives us one actual word, but “word” as in He gives us a communicated thought or a statement. The Greek word used for “word” in both of these gifts is the Greek word logos which describes “a transmission of thought, a word of explanation, an utterance, a divine revelation; a statement, instruction, or oracle. It is a divine promise, a divine doctrine, or a divine declaration.” So, when we see this word logos being used, we need to understand that it is more than just one actual word. It is the transmission of a thought from the mind of God. For example, the Bible is referred to as the living and powerful Logos of God (Hebrews 4:12). Well, the Bible is not all of that which God knows. It is not all the history of the human race. You know, there was likely a lot left out between Genesis 1:1 & 1:2. There were over 2,400 years of human history in those 50 chapters of Genesis. The Bible is also not all the truth and wisdom that there is in the world. It does not hold all the answers to every problem that anyone will ever have. But do you know what the Bible is? It is all of the knowledge and wisdom that we need concerning salvation and concerning knowing who God is and what His will is. In essence, the Bible is a “word of knowledge” and a “word of wisdom.” It is the Living Logos! So, to summarize, we can conclude that these gifts of the Spirit called “the word of knowledge” and “the word of wisdom” are simply small fragments of God’s vast knowledge and wisdom that are communicated to us as the Spirit wills and for the edification of the body of Christ. Now the word of knowledge is a fact from the past or present, while the word of wisdom is direction for the present or future. In other words, the word of knowledge is a supernaturally revealed piece of information that either has happened or is happening and the word of wisdom is the direction or guidance that is supernaturally revealed to us for what is happening or what will happen down the road. Now these can certainly happen in a spectacular way. For instance, early in my Christian walk, I had been specifically praying for the gifts of the Spirit to operate in my life and was particularly focusing on the word of knowledge. Well, I go to work that day and while I was standing at one part of the store, I heard the bell ring from the front door opening. I never turned to look at who was coming in, but after a few minutes, I had this “knowing” (almost like a vision) that there were a couple of kids in the back stealing cassette tapes (I guess that kind of dates meJ). Well, I put down what I was doing and went back to the music section, and sure enough, there they were stealing tapes. Now that was more of a spectacular manifestation of the word of knowledge, but these gifts also manifest in much less spectacular ways but no less supernatural. Sometimes the word of knowledge comes almost like an impression or a thought. Maybe we are outside the house doing something and we just have an impression that there is something wrong inside. So we go in the house and walk in on a fire that just began on the stove just in time to put it out before it got out of control. Maybe we are standing in church and just have a thought come in our mind that the person in the seat in front of us is going through a divorce. So, we tap them on the shoulder and ask them if they were and they break down in tears. I give these couple of examples to illustrate how gifts like the word of knowledge can come almost like a thought or an impression and are not always with the bells, whistles, and fireworks. The word of wisdom is no different: It too can be a subtle statement of wisdom that is communicated to our spirit that is not readily identifiable. Now this is easier to understand when we understand what the word of wisdom is. Again, God holds all wisdom for every situation, right? He has the correct answer for every question or situation that we have. He has the right answer for every impossible question like— “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” or “The law says to stone her. What do you say?” In both of these examples, the Holy Spirit gave Jesus the exact word of wisdom that He needed to answer those trap questions. God alone is wise! And for those situations that we are presented with—whether it be us personally or someone else conveying their issue to us—God has the word of wisdom that we need. He can give us the answer in that moment. I see this one in my life a lot. When I am confronted with situations that people are going through and they come to me for counsel, it seems like the Holy Spirit is always so faithful to give me words of wisdom for their particular situation. Now understand me, I am not just talking about general wisdom. This is not just something that we have accumulated through years of experience. I am talking about supernatural wisdom that can come through the mouth of babes. Two situations I am thinking of in particular are as follows: Number one, when I was a young child, my parents and I were on the way home from church, I was playing with my toys in the back seat as my parents were murmuring amongst themselves about something that they heard the pastor say. Of course, I don’t remember this but my parents said that while they were expressing their disagreement with what he said, I spoke up and said, “Y’all ought not to be talking about that.” Immediately, when they heard those words, they knew it was the Lord. Now I believe that was a little bit of prophecy but also a word of wisdom too. Another example is when I was in Bible College in Colorado Springs, me and a couple of other guys were sitting at a table in the breakroom and a spiritual question was raised that no one knew the answer to, including myself. Well, at that very moment the Lord gave a word of wisdom to the question that was asked and I knew the answer. I say all of this to say that a word of wisdom is a “word” from the infinite wisdom of Almighty God who has the answer for every one of life’s problems and questions. He knows! He sees! He understands! But like I said earlier, these two gifts like to work together: For instance, maybe we are standing at the kitchen sink washing dishes and we just have a knowing in our hearts that we need to call someone at that moment. Then it turns out that that individual was just asking the Lord to give them a specific answer to a difficult situation they are in. So, the Lord gave us a word of knowledge that we need to call them and then once we get in touch with them, He follows it up with the answer to their situation by giving us supernatural wisdom to share with them. But think back to that example I used just a moment ago where the Lord shows us that the person in the seat in front of us is going through a divorce: Well, He does not just give us info like that for nothing. He gives us those words of knowledge so that we can either pray for them, give them encouragement, or give them a word of wisdom! So, as that lady turns around and we tell her that the Lord has shown us that she is going through a divorce, we need to open our mouths wide and begin to encourage her, expecting a word of wisdom might soon follow. For instance, the Lord might say through us: “The Lord has shown me that you are going through a divorce. I also believe the Lord is showing me that the problem is that you have been fighting this battle yourself (another word of knowledge). So, stop fighting him, fearing that you will be taken advantage of. Give to him who asks of you and you will see me fight this battle for you.” Now those last two sentences were a word of wisdom. Notice that the first two parts of this were a word of knowledge—where we supernaturally knew of her divorce and then that she was fighting in her own strength. Then, the second part was a word of wisdom, because it held the wisdom of what to do in light of what she was going through and what she was currently doing. So, can you see how much we need these revelation gifts working in our lives? We need the gift of discerning of spirits to distinguish between the spirit of truth and error in the things we hear as well as to distinguish between the problem someone might be having in their life. This gift will help us help others more effectively while also helping keep us from those seducing spirits and doctrines of demons. We also need both the gifts of the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom so that we give people the information they need in their life. Yes, the word of knowledge will help us to tap into the omniscience of God so that we can see and know what someone has or is going through. And when we share this with that person, it’ll let them know that there is a God out there who loves them and cared enough about them to show their struggles to another person. Yes, the word of wisdom will help us to give people the answers and solutions that they need in their life as well. This gift will give people divine direction that will turn their situation around. Amen. So, again, earnestly desire these revelation gifts to operate more in your life and in the lives of those around you! Seek after them with all your heart—for as you wholeheartedly desire these gifts, your mere human knowledge and wisdom will turn into “revelation” and you will see and know things that your eyes have not seen nor have your ears heard. It’ll be supernatural—the supernatural life! Amen! REVIEW
So, let’s quickly recap what we have covered in the first three parts of this series. We have spent the first few weeks of this series laying a foundation that will, prayerfully, lead us into more of the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And this is what I am interested in, church—us experiencing the Holy Ghost’s gifts in our lives, not us just accumulating more head-knowledge. I hope that is your desire as well—which is exactly what we talked about last week: Last week, we talked about quenching the Holy Spirit—which we learned is not us offending Him through our sin and transgressions. No, we learned that we quench the Holy Spirit when we “despise” both His gifts and His fruit. And to despise these things is not to hate them or be against them in any way. No, we saw from First Samuel 2:30 that to despise something is to essentially dishonor it. In other words, despising spiritual gifts is to simply lightly esteem them, not necessarily to be in opposition to them. So, what we learned from this is that in order to keep from quenching the Holy Spirit, we need to do the exact opposite and start “desiring” prophecy (see First Corinthians 14:1) and to “covet earnestly” the best gifts (see First Corinthians 12:31). Amen? So, let’s go from simply not trying to quench the Holy Spirit to actually fanning the flame of the Holy Ghost through having hearts that long for and desire these gifts. But this is not the only key to experiencing the gifts of the Holy Spirit: We saw in part one of this series, that they are called “gifts” for a reason—and that is because they are not earned or to be worked for. So, another key to experiencing the gifts of the Spirit in our lives is we need to understand that we already have the gifts! Yes, they are already in us! So, we ought to stop trying to get something that God has already given us, but simply put to use what we already have. Which is what we went into great detail about in part two of this series: We learned what our responsibility is, if we already have the gifts inside of us. We looked at the Great Commission where the Lord told us to— “Go, therefore, … into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” We saw from this that since we have all been commissioned to go everywhere and minister to everybody, the question is not whether or not we are to do this; we need to be ready and willing at all times to let the gifts of the Spirit flow up out of our spirits. And we do this by putting ourselves in the position for the Holy Spirit to use us through practicing on people and simply being aware of what He is showing us when we are around others. Practice makes perfect, church! So, you are going to have to step out in faith on these things—trusting that the Holy Spirit will use you and I when we put ourselves in position to be used. Someone might have been thinking over these past few weeks, “When are you going to get into the gifts of the Spirit?” To which I would respond— First, I’m trying to get the gifts into you! Amen? So, again, we have three very foundational ways in which we can see more of a manifestation of the Spirit in our personal lives and in our corporate gatherings:
THE MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT Now as we’ve covered the first six verses, let’s move on to First Corinthians 12:7. In it, the apostle Paul says, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.” Notice here that Paul calls the various gifts of the Spirit, the different ministries of the Lord, and the diversities of activities of God, the “manifestation” of the Spirit. Now if you have traveled in many of our charismatic circles for any period of time, you know that this word “manifestation” is used a lot. We say things like— “I am just waiting on the manifestation of my healing” or “Please agree with me that my prosperity will manifest.” What we mean when we say this that we desire what God has already promised, performed, etc. to come from the spiritual realm into this physical realm. In other words, we want it to come to pass in this physical, tangible arena so that we are experiencing it in our lives. Now, the truth is, we can have all the promises in the world of divine health, prosperity, etc. but if we do not have any manifestation of these spiritual realities, then those promises don’t do us any good, do they? In other words, if we are not experiencing these things, then what purpose do these promises serve? No, we need the manifestation of God’s promises—and that includes the gifts of the Spirit. For instance, we might have the promise that the Lord is always with us—never to leave us nor forsake us—or the promise that the Holy Spirit abides with us forever, but it sure is nice and beneficial to have the manifestation of Him from time to time. You see, there is a difference between God always being positionally with us—that is, with us in the spirit realm—and Him being with us in the physical realm. While we certainly need to understand that the Lord is always with us by faith, we also should desire to see Him manifested in our midst from time to time as well. Yes, we also need the manifestation of the various gifts that God has given to the body of Christ. Then notice how Paul says that this manifestation of the Spirit “is given to each one.” No, not just some of us. No, these gifts and ministries have been given to each member of the body of Christ. Therefore, each one of us has spiritual giftings. This does not mean that we each have them all, but each of us have been specifically delegated certain “manifestations” of the Spirit. Now we must embrace this truth even if we don’t recognize what our gift is. In other words, since the Word says that each one has been given a gift and a ministry, then we receive that truth by faith and not by experience. Finally, Paul goes on to say that these various manifestations of the Spirit have been given to each one of us “for the profit of all.” Now herein lies the purpose for these manifestations of the Spirit. It is not just so that we can look good. It is not so we can say, “Look at me! I’m being used.” It is for the profit of all! In other words, God uses us to benefit others. You see, we all profit when all the different members of Christ’s body operate in their specific gifts. As Paul also uses for analogy, we are a body—and for one member of the body to not function and do their part, causes the rest of the body to suffer. Most of us have experienced an organ or a member of our physical body not working the way it was designed to, and we suffered for it. Well, that is what happens when one member of Christ’s body is not doing their part. The rest of us suffer for it. But I also believe this is the pure way to see more of the manifestations of the Spirit in our lives: It is to have the heart to be used so that others would be profited, and not so that we would benefit ourselves. In my opinion, this is a more excellent way to earnestly desire the best gifts as Paul exhorted us to do in First Corinthians 12:31; it is to seek them out of our love of helping and profiting others. Church, we always must check our motives, asking ourselves the question— “Why am I seeking what I am seeking? Is it out of my desire to benefit others or myself?” So now, this week, let’s move on to verses 8-10 and begin looking at these nine individual gifts of the Spirit: In these verses, Paul says, “for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” First of all, notice how Paul worded his listing of these nine gifts: He made sure to include the phrase “to another” before each one. But why? Evidently, he wanted to make sure his readers understood that these nine gifts are not going to happen in everyone’s life the same. To one, they will predominantly see the working of miracles manifested in their life. To another, they will mainly be used in both the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom. And I could go on and on, but the point is that to one is given certain gifts and to another is given different gifts. However, the very fact that Paul encourages us to earnestly desire the best gifts shows us that we don’t have to just throw our hands up in the air, saying, “Well, I guess this is my gift and that is all I will ever operate in.” No, we can hunger for and seek after more; just leave the distribution part up to the Holy Spirit. Now one way to do that is that as you pursue them in prayer, leave room for the Holy Spirit to drop His desires into your heart. In other words, submit your will to His will and let Him direct you into what specific gifts you are to pursue. As we saw in verse 10, He distributes to each one individually as He wills. So, this is a good place for us to pray something to the effect of— “Lord, I desire the best gifts in my life. Nevertheless, you know what is best for me and those around me. Therefore, not my will, but your will be done.” And then, if He places certain gifts on your heart to pursue, then diligently seek them with all your heart. Amen? Now these nine gifts of the Spirit can conveniently be broken down into three groups of three:
THE VOCAL GIFTS DIFFERENT KINDS OF TONGUES, INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES, & PROPHECY Now, this week, I want us to begin looking at the vocal gifts. We will spend a little more time on these three—mainly because the Holy Spirit chose to have the apostle Paul spend more time on them. On that note, did you know that tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy are the only gifts of the Spirit that any explanation or directions are given concerning (See First Corinthians Chapter 14)? So, since that is the case, I believe we should spend a little more time discussing these three vocal gifts of the Spirit. DIFFERENT KINDS OF TONGUES So, let’s begin with what the King James version calls the “diversities of tongues,” but as we begin with this spiritual gift, we need to dispel some false doctrines that permeate much of the church regarding this gift. Why? It is because it is important that we know why we believe what we believe. No, we do not need to just blindly embrace our charismatic traditions but we need to find Scriptural reasons for the things we believe. And that is especially important regarding the subject of tongues. You see, a good portion of the church today believes that the gifts of the Spirit (especially the gift of tongues) passed away with the apostles and now that we have the Bible, we do not need tongues, nor any other gift of the Spirit. This teaching comes from First Corinthians 13:8-12, where the Apostle Paul says when that which is “perfect” has come, that which is in part will be done away with (and he specifically mentions tongues as being one of those things that will pass away). Now there is a specific group of Christians that say the Bible is that which is “perfect” and since it has come, tongues and all of the other gifts of the Spirit have passed away. Now, although I do believe that the Bible is indeed perfect, I also believe that it is a huge stretch to say that is what Paul was referring to here. If you read those Scriptures in context it is rather obvious that Paul was talking about God’s kingdom coming and us receiving the fullness of our salvation. The main reason I can say this is because, along with tongues ceasing, Paul also said knowledge will end. Now we all know that we are all still growing in knowledge, so how can we say that now that we have the Bible, we know all things just as we are known? The only time we will know everything just like God knows us is when we receive our glorified bodies and are not limited by this carnal mind that we now have. No, that which is perfect has not come yet and therefore praying in other tongues is still available to us! Amen! Now there two ways of interpreting what Paul meant in First Corinthians 12:10 by “different kinds of tongues”—both of which are possible correct interpretations: One is that he is referring to different kinds of languages—which could describe different languages that we speak here on the earth or different languages that are spoken on earth versus in heaven (See First Corinthians 13:1). Another interpretation though is that he is referring to different classifications of tongues (i.e. different families of tongues). In other words, this would be the different supernatural types of tongues that edify us and others. Let’s begin with the first possible interpretation (i.e. different kinds of earthly languages) by looking at First Corinthians 13:1: First Corinthians 13:1 says, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…” First of all, we do need to understand that the word “tongues” just literally means “languages.” So, when Paul said that the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to speak with the tongues of men and of angels that just literally means that we are enabled by Him to speak with the languages (plural) of men and the languages (plural) of angels. Now this is an important point because notice that it is not just the supernatural ability to speak in another language from the earth that we are able to speak with; there are also other languages from heaven that we have been equipped to speak with. This squelches the idea that tongues are just speaking other earthly languages because, while it certainly involves that, there are many more kinds of tongues that we can speak that haven’t even originated from the earth. Like the kind of tongues Paul was referring to in First Corinthians chapter 14 when he said that when one speaks in a tongue “no one understands him.” If tongues was only earthly languages then someone would understand it, right? It is for this reason that I like to refer to our personal prayer language as our “heavenly language.” But there are those out there who like to water down this gift of tongues by saying that it is just God giving someone the ability to learn and speak in another language or He has given someone certain linguistic abilities. No, no, no! What we need to understand about all of the gifts of the Spirit is that they are “supernatural”—they are supernatural gifts given by the Holy Spirit that are not earned nor learned. Just as it was in Acts chapter 2, tongues are the supernatural ability to speak in another language that the speaker never had any knowledge of. Another point that needs to be made here is that if the Holy Spirit gives us the supernatural ability to speak in different kinds (plural) of earthly languages and even different kinds (plural) of heavenly languages, who are we to judge what is coming out of another man’s mouth or even our own mouth? You see, there are many who have deemed their own prayer language as not being legit because it doesn’t sound like another language. They think because they only hear a couple of apparent syllables that they are not being given utterance from the Holy Spirit or, if they even believe that it is the Holy Spirit giving them these couple of words, they think they are wasting their time if they were to spend any time speaking them out. First of all, do you know what every language on the earth today sounds like? On top of that, do you know what all other languages have sounded like from the beginning? The obvious answer is no! No, you do not know every dialect from times past! Heck, there are even languages that we do have the opportunity to hear here in the United States that only sound like two or three syllables. Have you ever been in a Vietnamese or Korean nail salon? Well, that sounds like two or three syllables too, doesn’t it? Hey, we could be speaking caveman for all we know—giving glory to God! But I am convinced that most of the time (not that I claim to know what every language sounds like either), we are speaking in the tongues of angels, and we have no clue what that is supposed to sound like, so don’t question it. However, like I stated earlier, not only are there different kinds of languages from heaven and earth that we can speak in, there are also different types of tongues that we can speak in. So, let’s look at these diversities of tongues in detail: The different classifications of tongues that the Holy Spirit has gifted the body of Christ with can basically be broken up into two categories in regards to their purpose:
You see, Paul was teaching the church that when they are gathered together, prophecy was better than tongues because it is a supernatural utterance given by the Holy Spirit in a known language, and this is what edifies the church. But He also talked about how tongues have their place in the church as well because there is another kind of tongues called the ministry gift of tongues that we will talk about in a minute and he talked about how that kind of tongues has the ability to edify the church just like prophecy when it is accompanied by an interpretation (of which we will also talk about later). He also talked about how there is also a kind of tongues that’s purpose is to be a sign to the unbeliever. Each of these kinds of tongues are for the edification of others. But Paul also talked about a kind of tongues that is only for our own personal edification—which I call our “personal prayer language.” In other places of Scripture, it is called “praying in the Spirit”—because it is the gift of the Spirit for each of us to be able to speak directly to God in a language unbeknownst to us. Again, we will talk about these three kinds of tongues in specific detail:
TONGUES AS A SIGN Let’s begin with the first kind of tongues recorded in the Scriptures—tongues as a sign. This is always, as Paul divided them up in First Corinthians 13:1, spoken in the “the tongues of men”—because it is meant to be a sign for the hearer who speaks that language. In the Book of Acts, we see this kind of tongues being practiced when the Holy Spirit was initially given. We see in Acts 2:6 that the people heard them speaking in their own native languages. Now do you believe this actually happened? And do you believe this can still happen today? It sure can, and it does! Now it is pretty obvious why the particular kind of tongues that they were gifted with on this day was the tongues that are for a sign because it was God’s divine setup! You see, Jews and proselytes from all different regions were in the city as a result of the Feast of Pentecost. So, God strategically sent the Holy Spirit and filled their mouth with the tongues of men as a sign to them that God was doing a “wonderful work.” Hallelujah! And He will do this through us as well if the situation calls for it. This is why we do not need to be afraid to speak in tongues in front of people. It is because God might manifest through us the language of someone who might hear us in order to reveal His greatness, goodness, power and love to and for them! And while I do not have proof that I have operated in this particular kind of tongues, I have to believe I have when traveling overseas—because there have been times where I would just feel compelled to speak in other tongues when I was around people who did not speak English, and they didn’t look at me like I had four eyes. 😉 You see, First Corinthians 14:22 teaches us about this kind of tongues being a sign to the unbeliever and that its purpose is for faith to arise in the hearts of the one who hears the wonderful works of God in his or her own tongue. TONGUES AS A MINISTRY Now we have all heard from the naysayers out there that tongues are not for everybody. Well, they are partly right. There is a particular kind of tongues that is not for every believer and this one is the ministry gift of tongues. I’m sure we are all familiar with the verse— “Do all speak with tongues?” (with the obvious answer being, no) (See First Corinthians 12:30)? Well, the way to understand that question Paul asked is by understanding the fact that there are diversities of tongues, and yes, there are kinds of tongues that are not for everybody. But before we conclude that this verse means not every believer can and should speak with tongues, we need to consider the context: You see, if you read verses 28-30, you will find that he is referring to “ministry gifts” (gifts given to the body for the purpose of edifying the church). So, just like we have teachers even though we all are and should be able to teach but we are not all called into the office of a teacher, just like we all are able to prophecy because he told the church to desire that they all may prophecy, we are all not given the office of a prophet. Likewise, when he speaks of tongues, he also is referring to the office of (or, ministry of) tongues. Therefore, when Paul says, “Do all speak with tongues?” He is referring to—not our own personal prayer language—but to the public use of tongues for the edification of others. You see, not everyone is gifted to speak in that type of tongues. This is given as the Spirit wills in a general assembly when someone speaks out in a group, giving a message in tongues, and should be followed with an interpretation that the church can understand what was being said and be edified. INTERPRETATION OF TONGUES Now that leads me to the other gift of the Spirit that we are talking about today—the interpretation of tongues. This gift of the Spirit also has “diversities”—meaning, there is a gift given to certain believers to interpret the tongues that others are gifted to speak out in the church, yet Paul taught us all to pray that we might interpret—meaning, that there is another type of interpretation that we can do with our own personal prayer language. So, the gift of interpretation of tongues can either be spoken out or simply revealed to us without any verbal activity. It can be spoken out either in a public assembly or in our prayer closet, but can also just be revealed information after we have prayed in tongues (This is mainly for our own private use of tongues). Now let me add this here while I’m at it: I see the ability to interpret tongues as similar to the Old Testament version of the gift of interpreting dreams. And we see when Daniel, for instance, interpreted a dream, he knew the meaning—the overview of its meaning—and then described it. Likewise, with the gift of interpretation of tongues—one might know the general message being given but it is still coming through that filter of flesh—meaning, they might be adding a little here and little there. This is why sometimes we might hear a very long message in tongues and a shorter interpretation, or a longer interpretation to a short message in tongues. In other words, an interpretation does not mean it is necessarily a word for word translation. An interpretation is a general idea, an overview, or an overall thought of something communicated. For instance, when you have an interpreter overseas, I have found that based on the language, they can’t always give a word for word translation of what you are saying. Sometimes they have to reverse the order of what you are saying for it to make sense in their language. Sometimes they have to just give the general idea in their own language. But that is what an interpretation is: It is basically what was being said, but in our own language. This is why we all can pray that we might interpret. It is because we all have the ability to pray in tongues for our own personal edification. Therefore, we all have the ability to interpret our own tongues for our own personal edification as well (see First Corinthians 14:13-14). TONGUES AS A PRAYER Now the third and final classification of tongues that I want us to talk about is the kind that every believer has the God-given right to speak in—Tongues as a prayer (i.e. tongues for our own personal edification and for the magnifying of God). This is the type of tongues Jesus referred to in Mark chapter 16 when He said that these signs will follow them that believe (see Mark 16:17). Notice Jesus did not say that these signs will follow the select elect or only certain individuals that the Lord willed to bless with these gifts. No, the gifts that Jesus mentions in Mark chapter 16 are for every believer for all time. We all are endued with power and authority from on high to cast out demons. There is no special gift of the Spirit for that. We are all gifted with the ability to lay hands on the sick and see them recover. Sure, there are gifts of healings mentioned in First Corinthians chapter 12 that are given as the Spirit wills, but Mark chapter 16 is not referring to a special gift of the Spirit. But notice that Jesus also included in this list that they (them that believe) shall speak with new tongues. This is the kind of tongues we all have been blessed to speak in once we are baptized in the Holy Spirit—tongues for our own personal prayer time and devotion. Jude called this “praying in the Spirit.” Paul called it the same in Ephesians 6:18 in describing a hidden yet powerful additional piece of armor we have been given. Paul also referred to this kind of tongues in First Corinthians 14:2 by saying that when we pray in an unknown tongue we are speaking to God, not to man. Therefore, it is a private devotional kind of prayer where we can communicate directly with God concerning things we do not know that we are to even be praying about. It is a means by which we pray for things that surpass our own understanding. Like, for instance, praying for someone across the globe whom we don’t even know, praying for an underlying issue in our heart that is the cause for what we think the problem we are having is, etc. But praying in the Spirit does more than just edify us. Just like our prayer time should consist of more than just prayers offered for our own life and be enveloped in praise, glory, and thanksgiving to God, likewise our prayers in the Spirit should contain this as well. Have you noticed that on the few accounts in the Book of Acts where people were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with tongues that they also magnified God, declared His wonderful works, etc.? Yes! Just as praise & thanksgiving should be the bulk of our prayer times in English, praise & thanksgiving likely is the bulk of our prayer times in the Spirit. Paul taught us this in First Corinthians 14:15-17 when he mentioned singing in the Spirit, blessing with the Spirit, and the giving of thanks! And notice that Paul said that you give thanks well when you do it in the Spirit (vs. 17). Friends, eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has entered into the heart of man all the benefits and manifold diversities of tongues. But this one thing I know: We do not have to know everything in order to benefit from it. Now speaking of benefits, allow me to conclude this teaching on this vocal gift by describing to you some more of its benefits: THE BENEFITS OF PRAYING IN TONGUES You know, in my experience as a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian, I have noticed that most people who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak in other tongues have no clue what the purpose of their prayer language is. There are many who think that it was only the initial evidence of being filled with the Holy Spirit or that it is just something that comes over you every once in a while, when you get goose bumps in a church service. But how many of you know there is much more to our prayer language than that? So, let’s look at some of the benefits of praying in the Spirit by turning over to First Corinthians chapter 14: I believe that this chapter gives us the most detailed description of what praying in other tongues accomplishes in our lives. In verse 2, the Apostle Paul said, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.” Notice that Paul said when we pray in the Spirit we are speaking directly “to God.” You see, we are not just aimlessly babbling a bunch of weird syllables together. We are speaking directly to the God of the universe when we pray in our heavenly prayer language! So, don’t ever think that using your prayer language is a waste of time because, as Paul goes on to say, “in the spirit (we) speak mysteries.” You see, this is why sometimes we do not “feel” like we are accomplishing anything when we pray in other tongues. It is because the impact is being made “in the spirit” (that is, not in this natural realm). You do not contact the spiritual realm with your feelings, emotions, or intellect. You probably will not sense anything most of the time you pray in other tongues because you are affecting things in the spiritual realm and not the natural. So, do not allow the enemy to convince you that you are wasting your time when you spend time praying in tongues just because you don’t feel anything. Just remember, the impact is being made in the spirit, not in the natural. Paul goes on to say in verse 2 that when we pray in these other tongues, we are praying “mysteries.” So, do you suppose that these “mysteries” are for God’s benefit? Of course not! So, then they must be for ours, right!?! Then what are these “mysteries” that we are praying? This word “mysteries” is the same word that Paul used in his epistles when describing the “mystery” of the New Covenant (see Ephesians 3:3-5). Therefore, these mysteries that we are praying in the spirit are the mysteries hidden in God before the foundation of the world! They describe the wonderful works of the Cross—that is, the great redemption that we have experienced. The mystery also goes as far as speaking of all that Christ is in us, and all that we are in Christ. In Colossians 1:26-27, Paul explains this mystery of the New Covenant beautifully! He says, “…the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The mystery is how Christ has come to make His abode in our hearts and how this results in us having an expectation of a glorious future. Therefore, when we pray in other tongues, we are praying out the revelation knowledge of the New Covenant mystery so that we can become enlightened to its truths! Glory to God! Now that makes me want to stop writing this and spend some time praying in the Spirit, amen? I believe this benefit of praying in tongues is a significant part of what Jude was referring to when he said in Jude 20— “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” When Jude uses the phrase “your most holy faith” he is not referring to our own personal faith, but to the Christian Faith in general. Jude is saying that when we pray in the Spirit, we build ourselves up upon the foundation laid by the apostles and the prophets—that is, the truths contained in the mystery of the New Covenant! You see, praying in other tongues is an integral part to us growing in the understanding and revelation knowledge of the Truth. I think the best example of this is in the ministry of the Apostle Paul: Why do you think that this mystery of the New Testament was revealed to Paul and not to Peter, John, or James? I believe the reason is found in First Corinthians 14:18 when He said, “I thank my God I speak in tongues more than you all.” In this verse, Paul gives us a little insight into what he spent a lot of his time doing. If he spoke in tongues more than the whole church of Corinth—which was a tongue talking bunch—then he must have prayed in the Spirit day and night. So, I believe it is no coincidence why he possessed more revelation knowledge than any other believer seeing that he spent a lot of time praying in tongues. And if we would spend time praying in the Spirit, we too would grow in the revelation knowledge of the mystery of Christ. I like to say, “If you want to have more revelation than them all then speak in tongues more than them all.” This is one of the main benefits of praying in the Spirit. The apostle Paul describes another benefit of praying in other tongues a couple of verses down in First Corinthians chapter 14: In verse 4, he says, “He who speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself…” The word “edifies” literally means “to build up.” Some Greek scholars say that the word used to translate “edifies” describes a battery getting charged. You see, we all need to get a little juiced up by the Holy Spirit every now and then and praying in tongues is one way we do this! This is another possible meaning of what Jude wrote when he said— “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.” If you look at the verse before this, Jude was describing “sensual” persons—that is, “sense-ruled” people (see Jude 19). Then in verse 20, he began by saying, “But you…” You could interpret this as— “You, on the other hand…” In other words, the way we can keep ourselves from living like “carnal people” is to build ourselves up by praying in the Holy Spirit. You see, by praying in tongues we can charge our spiritual battery to the point where we live above this carnal sense-ruled body that we live in. This is the power that is in our prayer language! So, you could say that another way to walk in the Spirit is to pray in the Spirit! I can testify to this too: On the days where I have been disciplined enough to start my day by spending time praying in other tongues, it was rather obvious to me that I was walking in the Spirit the rest of that day. It seemed like there would just be a flow that I was in on those days. For example, I would just be in the right place at the right time, either receiving the favor of God or being in a position to minister to somebody. Man, I’ll tell you—the days that I have taken the time to do this have been exciting days! That is because living a Spirit-controlled life is “living the life!” Amen! In Isaiah 28:11&12, we are given a prophetic glimpse of this benefit of praying in other tongues. In this passage of Scripture, we have what many consider to be the only reference to this particular manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In fact, we know these verses in Isaiah are prophetic of this New Covenant gift because the Apostle Paul made reference to this Scripture in First Corinthians 14:21 when admonishing the Corinthians on the subject of tongues. So, let’s look at these Scriptures in Isaiah chapter 28: In verse 11, Isaiah says, “For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people…” The Apostle Paul used this particular statement to show how one of the many diversities of tongues is to be a sign for the unbeliever (see First Corinthians 14:21-22), but if you look on to verse 12, I believe the Holy Spirit through Isaiah gives us a result of these “stammering lips and other tongues”… He says, “To whom He said, ‘This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.’ And, ‘This is the refreshing’; yet they would not hear.” Notice in this verse we are told that two of the results of praying in other tongues are that we enter into a rest and that we experience a refreshing. These are two of the specific characteristics of what Paul deemed “edification.” Did you know that when you become weary in well doing and begin to grow faint in your race of faith, that praying in other tongues is a way that you can enter into a supernatural rest? Did you know that when you feel dry and empty in your soul that you can experience a supernatural refreshing through your prayer language? That’s right! You don’t need to run to someone else to pray for you or to the nearest revival service to get a fix. You see, this is what so many believers do: They look for a place where God is moving and drive miles to go get that quick fix from God. But that is only a superficial way of experiencing a personal revival. The best way to experience a personal revival is to get it from the inside/out and not the outside/in! All you need to do to enter into the rest and refreshing of the Holy Spirit is to set aside a period of time, go into your prayer closet and pray in other tongues for an extended period of time. I guarantee you if you do this, your battery will get charged up and you will experience more peace and joy than you were previously experiencing! I can recall the first time when I just decided that I was going to pray in tongues for one hour. Now up to that point I had never prayed in the Spirit for anywhere close to that amount of time, but I just wanted to see what would happen. Well, for the first 30 minutes or so I did not see any difference, but once I got around 40-45 minutes into it, I had so much energy just burst forth out of my spirit that I did not know what to do with myself! The closest thing I can liken it to was like my body got filled with a bunch of caffeine and sugar (without the edge, of course)! Man, I felt full of the life of God! This was obviously that refreshing Isaiah prophesied about! Now am I saying that you too will experience that same exact thing 45 minutes into your prayer time? No, I’m not. It may be that you enter into that rest 15 minutes or either an hour into your prayer time. It may take well over an hour. What I am saying is that you can expect a spiritual edification to occur if you will commit yourself and not let a clock determine your decision to sow to the Spirit. Yes church, there is a spiritual edification that takes place when we spend time praying in other tongues to where our spiritual battery gets charged up. We need to take advantage of this awesome benefit of our prayer language. Amen? Now there are many other benefits to our prayer language, and while I lack the time here to be able to expound on all of them, let me quickly just mention a couple of them: Number one, praying in other tongues is a way of allowing the Holy Spirit to intercede through us when we do not know what to pray for as we ought (see Romans 8:26-27). Number two, praying in other tongues is a great way to sing unto God. Paul said when we sing in the Spirit we are praising and thanking God well (see First Corinthians 14:15-17). Finally, number three, not only is it a pure way to praise; it’s a pure way to pray. Zephaniah 3:9 says, “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the LORD, to serve Him with one accord.” Not to mention, praying in tongues is also good for our health! Scientific studies have found that it activates a part of our brain that releases chemicals that enhance health. Saints, with all of these awesome benefits of this prayer language that we have been given, it would behoove us to make time in our daily routine for it. I mean, just think if we were to set aside an hour every day to pray in the Spirit, what a difference it would make in our lives! But you know, it is easier said than done. When you make the decision to make this more of a priority in your life, the enemy will fight you tooth and nail. You see, the enemy fights the gift of tongues almost more than anything else as evidenced by the many false doctrines we discussed earlier. He will put every reason in the world into your mind to try and distract you from going into your prayer closet. And if this doesn’t work, he will lie to you during your prayer time telling you that you are just wasting your time. Why do you think that he does this? How about because he knows its benefits to the believer and he doesn’t want us tapping into those divine secrets and edification. So, don’t let him do this to you! Make a commitment and stick to it. You will be glad that you did. Selah! Church, I have heard from some of the greatest ministers of the past century that they attributed their success in impacting the world, the gaining of revelation, and the power that followed their lives and ministries to this one gift! Which leads me to one more invaluable benefit to praying in tongues—it tends towards the other gifts of the Spirit. Let me explain: In the world, we have what are called the “gateway drugs”—that is, those substances that lead people into other, more potent drugs. Well, we have a perfectly legal gift—legal for every one of us to pray in whenever we want, as much as we want—and it certainly is the gateway into a supernatural life of the Spirit. One of the most influential leaders that I benefited from early in my walk—Brother Kenneth E. Hagin—once said, “The more I speak in tongues, the more I see the manifestation of the other gifts in my life. The less I speak in tongues, the less I see the manifestation of the other gifts in my life. Tongues is the door into the supernatural!” Amen! To this, I give a hearty amen! DESIRING PROPHECY Now we just learned that these nine gifts of the Spirit can be divided into three different categories—three groups of three gifts. And we began talking about the vocal gifts last time by going into detail concerning the diversities of tongues and interpretation of tongues. We talked about how tongues is the doorway into this supernatural life that is filled with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and we learned what tongues will do in the life of the believer. But now I want to move into the last, but definitely not least, vocal gift, which we know to be prophecy. So, let’s go over to First Corinthians chapter 14 and look into this chapter that is devoted completely to the subject of these three vocal gifts. Now, again, I want to remind you that tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy are the only three gifts that you see any instructions given concerning? Yes, no other gift of the Spirit comes with instructions, save these three vocal gifts. And it is possible that the reason for this is because these three are the only gifts that we can initiate in our lives—meaning, they are the only ones we can turn on or turn off. Now I know that might seem a little strange, but our mouths are involved with these—wherein, with the others, it isn’t. For example, when it comes to preaching the gospel, the Holy Spirit does not just take over our mouth and make us speak out the good news, right? So, why would we think that He does this with the different kinds of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy? No, there is certainly a part we have to play in the operation of these vocal gifts in our lives. Yes, we open our mouth wide and He fills it. It is that simple. As we have made the point of already, this is why so many believers fail to speak in tongues as well as operate in prophecy: It is because many don’t ever open their mouths. They think that if it is as the Spirit wills, then it will just be overwhelming and be obvious, but it just does not work this way. I have seen this play out in my life as it pertains to prophecy. The more I step out and begin speaking into people’s lives, the more I yield myself to that gift. I will get more into this in a moment. You see, just as it is with many things in the kingdom of God, we must do things first by faith. As God’s people respond in faith and step out concerning God’s promises, the Lord meets us. He said in James 4:8 that when we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us. It doesn’t say that God draws near to us, and we simply cannot control drawing near to Him. No, we initiate the connection! Of course, the Lord initially initiated it through giving us Jesus and providing all that we need for life and godliness, but this is now how we respond to what He has already done. Say, for instance, with tongues, we might start out in the flesh as we begin praying out the utterance given to us by the Holy Spirit. But we will eventually end up in the spirit as we do it by faith. Again, this has happened with me time and time again as I have spent periods of time praying in the Spirit. I start out just praying and don’t sense anything, but after some time, it is like the prayer language begins to flow more and there is great grace upon it. Always remember: first faith; followed by feelings. Now it is the same with prophecy: Sometimes we just need to open our mouths and begin to purposefully speak edifying, exhorting, and comforting words into people’s lives. We might start out speaking them out of our head, but then God can start filling our mouth with words out of our spirit. It is the exact same principle. This all goes back to what I taught in the beginning of this series: being a faithful steward. Because God will entrust more to those who are good stewards of what they already have and more is given to those who operate in faith out of their stewardship. Therefore, faith produces more and being a good steward produces more. So, God gives us specific instructions concerning tongues and prophecy in First Corinthians chapter 14—how they are to be done decently and in order, etc. Now the very fact that Paul tells this church how when they come together, to not let tongues be the only thing they practice and how one, two, or three are to speak in tongues at the most and then one interpret, tells us one very important thing. Evidently, these gifts are under our control to some degree. Elsewise, he would not have given them instructions on how they are to operate. So, let’s go ahead and begin reading in verse 1 and learn more about the last one of these vocal gifts, focusing on the gift of prophecy: Now notice that in verse 1, Paul says to pursue love and to desire spiritual gifts. Basically, what Paul was saying was— “Okay, church, pursue what I talked about in chapter 13 and desire what I talked about in chapter 12.” In other words, he was tying together the truths he talked about in the previous two chapters right here in this statement, and then he goes on to say, “but especially that you may prophesy.” Why is this so significant? It is because, as Paul will go on to say in chapter 14, prophecy is a beautiful summarization of both of these two truths that he laid out to us in these prior two chapters. Why? Because we should desire the gifts because we are pursuing love. In other words, we should be coveting the gifts of the Spirit not because we are being covetous, but because we desire to help and be a blessing to other people. It is all about love, my friends, and if we only want to be used in the gifts for our own glory, fame, and self-promotion then we are missing the boat. We are first to pursue love and then desire spiritual gifts in order to more effectively love people. So, what does this have to do with prophecy? Why should we especially desire that we might prophesy? It is because prophecy edifies, exhorts, and comforts others and, therefore, is the best way to love people vocally. Amen. Now let me throw this in here—but the very fact that God told us to especially desire to prophecy shows us that we all can be used in this gift of prophecy. Yes, again, just because we don’t see it operating in our life yet does not mean we are doomed to a life of not operating in this gift. We can desire it! We can seek it! We can press into it! Amen! But the following point needs to be made here—Although we all can prophecy, that does not make all of us prophets. Prophecy is different than the office of a prophet, just as our personal prayer language in tongues is different than the ministry gift of tongues and someone able to teach is different than the five-fold ministry gift of a teacher. So, let’s now look at this gift in more detail so that we can become hungrier for it—for we become hungry for what we feed on: The apostle Paul goes on to say in First Corinthians 14:2-3— “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit, he speaks mysteries. But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.” So, what we have here is Paul telling us why we should especially desire the spiritual gift of prophecy; it is because tongues speaks to God (which is certainly good for us as an individual). But if we are truly pursuing love, then prophecy should be the vocal gift that we desire most because it speaks words of edification, exhortation, and comfort to our brothers and sisters. You see, while it is certainly important that we spend time speaking to God through praying in the Spirit in our own personal time, the greater good is to spend our life seeking to speak into the lives of our neighbor. While we can certainly edify, exhort, and comfort ourselves through praying in other tongues, it is more profitable to others to speak edifying, exhorting, and comforting words into them through prophecy. As we spend time speaking in tongues, we are focusing on building ourselves up, but as we spend time seeking to prophesy, we focus on building others up. This is love—the more excellent way. So, I have concluded that a good definition of prophecy versus tongues is this: The gift of prophecy is a supernatural utterance in a known language just as tongues is a supernatural utterance in an unknown language. In fact, prophecy basically produces the same results as speaking in other tongues. We can see this in verses 3 & 4 when Paul says that prophecy speaks edification to men and tongues edifies ourselves. PROPHECY EDIFIES So, what does it mean to “edify”? It means to “build up.” This is why Jude said in verse 20 that, as we pray in the Spirit, we build ourselves up on our most holy faith. Now Jude was referring to building ourselves up, not on our own personal faith, but upon our most holy faith—that is, the faith of Jesus Christ (the faith of the new covenant). So, in other words, Jude was saying that tongues is a means for saints to build themselves up upon the foundation of this new and better covenant—meaning, if you want to learn more and go higher in your revelation of the New Testament doctrine, then tongues is a vehicle for doing so. In fact, in Isaiah chapter 28, we have one of the very few Scriptures in the Old Testament where tongues was forecasted. It said, “For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people.” But what I want you to notice are the verses before and after this passage. Notice that he talks about line upon line and precept upon precept. This is that edifying that Paul and Jude referred to. But what I want you to see here is that prophecy also edifies and builds up like tongues does. The difference is that tongues builds us up personally while prophecy builds us up corporately. THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY You see, back in the early church, tongues and prophecy were the two primary vehicles that God used to establish and build the church up on their most holy faith. In fact, prophecy was actually the main source of the New Testament doctrine that we call the holy canon of Scriptures (see Second Peter 1:20). For many, that is a new revelation because what we have the benefit of seeing as the Holy Scripture is all recorded in our Holy Bible. But you do know that this Bible did not just originate from heaven, right? In other words, it did not fall out of the sky 2,000-plus years ago. No, it was written through inspired and supernatural utterance given to them in a known language! Therefore, the Bible is a result of prophecy because it was supernatural utterance given to each of these men in their known language. In Second Peter 1:19, the Bible itself is called the more-sure word of prophecy! We call it the Word of God, but while it is certainly the Word (originated) of God, the vehicle in which God gave it to us is through the Word of Prophecy. Now there is an important lesson in this because Peter does not just call the Scriptures the “word of prophecy”; he calls it the “more sure word of prophecy.” You see, while words of prophecy that are given today certainly can be absolutely inspired of God and edifying, they can also be polluted, diluted, or completely uninspired. This is why we are told to judge prophesies. The very fact that we are told to judge prophesies should show us that not all so-called prophesying is of God. Just because someone stands up and says, “Thus saith the Lord…” does not mean that everything that comes out of their mouth is of God. Just as the interpretation of tongues is just that, an interpretation, not a word for word translation, likewise, prophecy is not a word for word utterance given by God. A prophecy can include one thing that was indeed “Thus saith the Lord” and then another thing that was “Thus saith the dude.” This is because God’s living water flows through dirty pipes. Therefore, just as you would not just blindly drink something that flowed through a pipe, you shouldn’t just drink everything that flows through another person. You should judge it. How many of you stay in a place somewhere that is not used that often and turn on the faucet and drink the water without first making sure the water is not corroded? I’ll tell you—I look at the water first and make sure it is not discolored and doesn’t stink before I put it in my mouth. In other words, I judge the water. I don’t judge the pipe because I am not qualified to judge pipes. What is on the inside of pipes is unknown and unseen to me. Therefore, I cannot judge pipes. But I certainly can judge the water that comes out of pipes through my senses. Well, we should do this with prophesies. We should judge the words spoken; but avoid judging the one from whom the words came from. Why? Because they can miss it! It is not like God’s Words are continuously flowing through them. If it were a truly reputable and spiritual person, you might be able to be a little more trusting because, if the living water has flown through them enough, then they are more likely to be speaking by inspiration of God. But if it is like that place I described before, that does not have a reputation of being used efficiently in the past with a good testimony, then you better not blindly trust their “words.” You had better use your spiritual senses and determine if it is God or if it is just them. HOW TO JUDGE PROPHECIES So, how do we judge prophecies: Well, as we learned last week from First Corinthians 12:3, those utterances inspired by the Holy Spirit will never defame Jesus and His finished work; they will always glorify Him. However, many Spirit-inspired utterances do not make reference to Jesus one way or another, so how do you judge these supernatural signs that are given to the Body? By obeying what Paul said after encouraging us to not despise prophecies in First Thessalonians 5:21— “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” You test all things! The Scripture teaches us to judge all prophecies—to judge them, first of all, by what I just said, “Do they glorify the deity and authority of our Lord and do they glorify the finished work of our Savior?” Secondly, does that word you received line up with the Scriptures—meaning, does it contradict what is written. Always remember: “Thus saith the Lord” never is to be placed above “What is written.” Then, if they pass those two tests, you hold fast to that which “seems good”—meaning holding fast to the things which bear witness to your heart and you have peace with. Is that fire burning within you? Is the Spirit bearing witness inside of you? Does it seem right to your spirit and the Holy Ghost? If it does—hold fast to it! Don’t let go of the Word of Lord and it shall surely come to pass! But the wonderful news is that even though prophecies are subject to inspection and can be off base, we have a “more sure” word of prophecy—namely the Word of God, and it never fails; it is always true; and we can be “more sure” that it is an unfailing prophecy. So, the lesson in this is—make sure you do not always run around looking for a prophecy because they can fail. They are not a sure thing simply because they come through flawed vessels. Look unto the more sure word of prophecy and always, always, always, use God’s Word as the barometer to whether any words you receive contradict the truth or not. Now we have seen that prophecies are given to, first of all, build us up—line upon line, precept upon precept—on our most holy faith. And we have seen that our most holy faith is God’s Holy Word. And this should not seem strange because look at all the prophecies that are recorded as Scripture. PROPHECY EXHORTS AND COMFORTS Then the Apostle Paul goes on in First Corinthians 14:3 to say that another purpose of prophecy is to offer exhortation to others: Now to exhort means to encourage, spur on, or push someone forward. You see, sometimes believers need to be encouraged. They need to know that God understands their situation. They need to be reminded of what His Word says to spur them on in their believing Him. We see in the Scriptures how David encouraged himself in the Lord in First Samuel 30:6. Well, how did he do that? I guaranteed you that he prophesied to himself! He exhorted himself likely through the inspired songs that he wrote. Again, many of those songs were actually inspired Scriptures that he wrote called “psalms.” Did you know that you can do this as well? While prophecy is mainly given to encourage others; you can prophesy to yourself and exhort yourself in the Lord. Amen! I have done this many of times. And do you want to know one way in which to do this? Through singing songs unto the Lord! Ephesians chapter 5 says that we are to speak to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And in the verse before that he tells us to be continuously filled with the Spirit. How? By speaking to ourselves words of edification, exhortation, and comfort through singing and making melody in our heart to the Lord! Hallelujah! Friends, this is prophetic in nature and what keeps us filled up with the Holy Spirit! We must learn to do what David did when he spoke words of prophecy to himself and exhorted his soul to bless the Lord! Amen. This is one of the best ways to exhort ourselves in the Lord. (Compare Colossians 3:16) And, last but not least, Paul says that prophesies are given in order to bring comfort to people: Many people seem to think all prophecy is doom and gloom. But while prophecy can be giving bad news that is coming to pass, it is also to bring comfort to people. Like say a prophecy comes forth that says there is a famine coming, God will oftentimes couple that together with the good news that it will be done in so and so time, allowing people to get ready (This is comforting, isn’t it?). OTHER FORMS OF PROPHECY But one point that I want you to take away from this is that prophecy takes on many forms in how it comes forth. It is not just the time where one stands in front of you and says, “Thus saith the Lord…” No, prophecy can come forth in songs as one sings to the Lord. This can happen both corporately or in our prayer closet because as we begin to open our mouth in praise and adoration of God, the Holy Spirit can begin filling our mouths with a supernatural utterance that “gives thanks well”—just as tongues is a better and more inspired way to praise God. Prophecy also can come forth in prayers: How many of you have ever experienced that as you were praying for a certain individual or a certain situation that you were maybe reminded of something concerning that thing you were praying about and then as you began praying words came into your mind and mouth that just flowed out of your heart. Well, that was likely a word of knowledge coupled together with prophecy! Prophecy can also come forth in poetry or other writings. I have found that this is one of the ways that God has used me in prophecy more times than I could count. I used to accredit the inspiration that I feel when I write to just that, simply being inspired and as a gift pertaining to my calling. But what I can see now is that this is prophecy because this is all prophecy is. It is simply inspired utterance in a known language. So why can this not be expressed in writing? There is also an element of prophecy in preaching and teaching and witnessing. Yes, we see many gifts of the Spirit in manifestation in the ministering of God’s Word. We can see the word of knowledge, the word of wisdom, and especially this gift of prophecy simply in the sharing of God’s Word. Again, this was understood in the Early Church and where many of the scriptural truths that we have today came from. They actually depended on prophecy to develop the doctrinal truths that we have today recorded in the Scriptures. PRACTICE PROPHESYING So, here is the lesson we should take away from this: We need to do more talking! We need to do more singing! We need to do more writing! We need to position ourselves to let this gift of prophecy flow through us! We need to give the Holy Spirit ample opportunity to distribute to us His inspired, supernatural utterance! So, begin to seek to speak words of edification, exhortation, and comfort into other’s lives! Do this by calling them on the phone, writing them a letter, etc. Be a good steward of the ability you have now to bless people with your words while in your heart hungering and desiring that this gift of prophecy flows through you more regularly. If you do this, you will see more of this supernatural utterance flowing through you. Amen. REVIEW
So, let’s quickly recap what we have covered thus far. We have spent the first couple of weeks in this series laying a foundation that will, prayerfully, lead us into more of the manifestation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. In part one of this series, we looked at the fact that they are called “gifts” for a reason—and that is because they are not earned or to be worked for. Yes, they are gifts of God’s grace in our lives—meaning, they don’t come as a result of works, but by His grace. Therefore, we learned that if the Holy Spirit lives within us, then all of the gifts He provides are already inside of us as well. Amen. So, we need to stop trying to get something that God has already given us. That’s right: we already have the gifts! They are already in us! We have “charisma!” Then last week, in part two of this series, we learned what our responsibility is, if we already have the gifts inside of us. We looked at the Great Commission where the Lord told us to— “Go, therefore, … into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature!” We saw from this that it is not a question of if we should go somewhere and minister to someone; it’s a matter of how we should do it. In other words, since we have all been commissioned to go everywhere and minister to everybody, the question is not whether or not we are to do this. We need to be ready and willing at all times to do this. So, as it pertains to the gifts of the Spirit, we need to always be ready and willing to let the gifts flow out of us. And we do this by putting ourselves in the position for the Holy Spirit to use us through practicing on people and simply being aware of what He is showing us when we are around others—first in our “Jerusalem,” then in our “Judea’s & Samaria’s,” and all the way to the ends of the earth. Practice makes perfect, church! So, you are going to have to step out in faith on these things—trusting that the Holy Spirit will use you and I when we put ourselves in position to be used. It is a truth that “we are experiencing as much of God right now that we want to." This is true because we will move to make happen what we REALLY want. If we want it, we have to get out there and start doing it. God says, “I will bless the WORK of your hands.” If we aren't working at something, God has nothing to bless. MORE GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS ON SPIRITUAL GIFTS So, let’s begin this week, by looking back over at First Corinthians chapter 12: We saw in verse one, that the apostle Paul expresses his desire for us not to be ignorant in these spiritual things. Then, in verse two, he describes our former state when we were Gentiles and were driven by the wrong spirits. So, in verse three, he goes on to say, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” Now when Paul says here— “Therefore I make known to you…” what he was saying is, “So, because I do not want you to be ignorant concerning spiritual things, this is what you need to know.” And then he goes to say that no one speaking by the Holy Spirit will call Jesus accursed, nor will anyone say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Ghost. Now in both of these completely contrary examples, the apostle Paul was not saying that someone cannot call Jesus “accursed” by mistake. Nor was he saying that it is absolutely impossible for one to simply utter the phrase “Jesus is Lord” unless they are saying it by the Holy Spirit. No, the fact is—we could pull someone off the street and pay them $100 to stand here and say, “Jesus is Lord” and they could do it. What Paul was referring to is if someone is claiming to be speaking by inspiration of the Spirit of God—either claiming to be prophesying or giving an interpretation of tongues—they will always glorify Jesus and never will defame Him or His work on the Cross. And, church, that is one of the tell-tell signs that validate these manifestations of the Spirit of God in our lives—it is that the Holy Spirit’s ministry is to always glorify Jesus (see John 15:26). So, if you ever hear any kind of utterance that takes any glory away from Jesus—referring to Him and His work on the Cross as common or even takes any glory away from His place as the Second Person of the Trinity and being the way, the truth, and the life—then you can be assured that that was not the Spirit of God. Saints, the Holy Spirit always points to Jesus—His Lordship and His finished work! Now, of course, many Spirit-inspired utterances do not make reference to Jesus one way or another, so how do you judge these supernatural signs that are given to the Body? By obeying First Thessalonians 5:21— “Test all things; hold fast what is good.” You test all things! The Scripture teaches us to judge all prophecies—to judge them, first of all, by “Do they glorify the deity and authority of our Lord and do they glorify the finished work of our Savior?” Then, if they pass that test, you hold fast to that which “seems good”—meaning holding fast to the things which bear witness to your heart and you have peace with. Is that fire burning within you? Is the Spirit bearing witness inside of you? Does it seem good? If it does—hold fast to it! Don’t let go of the Word of Lord and it shall surely come to pass! Now notice that in the following 3 verses, the 3 members of the Godhead are referred to—each having their own personal role in regards to the manifestation of the gifts: Verses 4-6 say, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.” First, you have the “same Spirit” working in the distribution and manifestation of the diversities of gifts. This means that the Holy Spirit’s role is to distribute and manifest the different modes of gifts. This is why they are called the gifts of the Spirit. (We will move into this next time) Second, you have the “same Lord”— Lord, always being a reference to God the Son, Jesus Christ (who is the same as the Spirit of the Godhead Three in One) working in the distribution of the different ministries of the body. These are the fivefold ministry offices as well as the other office gifts such as administrations, helps, giving, etc. Thirdly, you have the “same God”— God always being a reference to the Father, Yahweh and Jehovah—who is working behind the scenes in all of it empowering, energizing, and effecting all the things being done. For the increase comes from God (First Corinthians 3:6). Let’s look at the operation of all three members of the Godhead in more detail, beginning with God the Father: Again, Paul says, “And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.” Although there are different gifts given to us by the Holy Spirit and different ministries given to us by the Lord Jesus, God is the One who is at work in and through all of these gifts and ministries! He works in them all! He works through them all! And He works above them all! (see Ephesians 4:6) This means that He is the power, grace, and energy working behind all of these gifts and ministries! He works all [the gifts of the Spirit] in all [the ministries of the Lord]. He is the engine that empowers and energizes all of these things. We must never forget this because understanding that God is our source for everything and in Him is the grace for everything good and profitable that we are able to do for the Lord, is the key to being strong in that grace. He upholds all things by the Word of His power! He is our all in all—holding everything together in our lives just as He holds everything together in the universe! Do you know what keeps that shirt your wearing together? Do you know what keeps your flesh on your bones? Do you know what keeps that chair your sitting in together? The answer is God, God, God—the Godhead Three in One! But this verse literally says that there are differences of the ways God works in these things—meaning that there are different ways that God works these different gifts and ministries. This is so important to understand as well because countless Christians look at certain ministers, and when they feel called to the same ministry, they try and emulate what that other minister does or how they minister. Don’t ever do that. You are unique and an individual. You are different. So even if you have the same ministry as someone, that doesn’t mean you are going to operate in it like they do. For instance, I have the same gifting as my friend and mentor, Andrew Wommack, has—to be a teacher in the Body of Christ. But that doesn’t mean that I am going to teach like him. I don’t prepare like he does and I don’t carry myself like he does. We are different. And that’s alright! It doesn’t mean one is better than the other and it doesn’t mean someone needs to become more like the other. There are different ways in which God works through us but it’s the same God doing the work. Say, you have the gift of leadership. Well, there are different ways to lead. God might work through you to lead with a different personality and with different methods than He works through someone else. But the bottom line is God works these gifts and ministries through different individuals in different ways. There is no cookie cutter ministry or gift out there. Amen? Therefore, there are different activities—or different ways that various gifts of the Body act and operate—but God is working in and through them. And do you recall that this was an issue in the Corinthian Church? They were divided—one saying they were of Apollos (the pastor there), and others saying they were of Paul (their apostle). And I can guarantee you that they were doing what so many still do today: they were incorrectly viewing their gifting and anointing as the way God works. This is wrong. God flows through our personalities and the things that make us unique. He doesn’t have just one way of using us. Next, Paul says that there are diversities of “ministries” (i.e. administrations), but the same Lord. Now, we learned already that “Lord” is a reference to the Master, Jesus Christ. So, we see here that God the Son is at work in the distribution of the different ministries in the body. Now when we hear of this word “ministry” we think of pastoring, evangelism, teachers, etc. but did you know that we all have a “ministry”? We all have been called into the ministry! Paul referred to all who have been made new creations in Christ as “ministers of reconciliation.” It is much easier to swallow this when you consider the literal definition of “minister” or “ministries.” It just literally means to serve. Every one of us are called to serve in some degree or another. Those we consider to be “ministers” are simply called to serve others through spending time in the Word and then offering it to the people. For example, the pastors are simply called to tend to their flocks—serving them with their time and gifts. So, we are all called and gifted with a specific ministry in the Body of Christ to serve others with. While some have been given the ministry of being an apostle, prophet, or teacher, others have been given the ministry of helps or administrations (see First Corinthians 12:28). These are two of those overlooked and disesteemed gifts to the body (which Paul just referenced in 1 Corinthians 12:13-27) but they are just as vital as any other ministry. For example, I, being called into the fivefold ministry as a pastor and teacher, cannot do everything I am called to do unless I have the ministries of helps and administrations joining together with me. A pastor cannot do everything! He cannot run the sound, the equipment, usher, greet, sweep, mop, etc. all by himself. He needs the ministry of helps. Moses needed those two to help hold up his arms—which is a perfect picture of the ministry of helps. He didn’t have the ability to hold up his arms on his own. He needed help! Likewise, everyone with a “pulpit ministry” needs help. But they also need the ministry of administration as well. These are those who are gifted to give guidance and direction and assistance behind the scenes. There are also those who have the gift of wise decision-making. They know how to administer the finances of a ministry. They are leaders—not necessarily with the vocal gift. And there are other gifts (or ministries) as well such as the ministry of exhortation, giving, leadership, and mercy (see Romans 12). Many different worship leaders have the ministry of exhortation and leadership. We put them in the ministry of “worship leader” but the Bible actually does not use this title. What they oftentimes have is the ministry of exhortation and leadership. Missionaries are a good example of this as well. We don’t see a reference to “missionary” in the Bible but since an apostle literally is a “sent one” that means that some missionaries that are sent out to start, establish, and build up churches could be “apostles.” However, some missionaries have the gift of mercy—which is a heartfelt desire to go and meet the natural as well as spiritual needs of a people on foreign soil. But the ministry of exhortation, for instance, is oftentimes sitting in the pews. We have those who have this gift because of their knack for pinpointing someone to encourage and they speak words to lift up and edify people. There are those who have the gift of giving—that is, they first of all have a mind for making money and God has given them this ability because they are called unto the “gospel of entrepreneurship” to help finance other ministries to do what they do. For instance, I have friends who have a strong desire for God to pour wealth into them so that they can pour it out into God’s church. My wife has a wonderful gift of mercy and can go and sit with someone who is hurting and listen to them all day long. So, these are ministries just as much as an evangelist is a minister. But the bottom line is, the Lord has given us all these different ministries we have in the body and none of them are any less significant than the others. Ephesians 4:7-12 describes when Jesus administered these different ministries—after He was raised up from the dead and He was ascending to heaven. It says that when He ascended on high, He gave gifts unto men. And verse 11 says that it was “He, Himself” (meaning, Jesus Himself) who gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers.” You see, Jesus is the One who gave you your ministry and it doesn’t matter whether you can put your finger on what it is or not—just follow the desires of your heart to serve and combine that together with your area of expertise, and you will find your ministry. But if you want to know what it is, just go and ask Him what He gave you! And then, don’t go and look for a title—just look for an opportunity to serve! Selah! And, last but definitely not least, Paul said in verse 4—“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” And these gifts of the Spirit are what we are going to begin to cover over our next few weeks. We are going to be talking about the nine gifts of the Spirit which can easily be broken down into 3 groups of 3: The vocal gifts—prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. The revelation gifts—word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and discerning of spirits. And the power gifts—working of miracles, gifts of healings, and special faith. QUENCHING THE HOLY SPIRIT As for this week’s message, I want us to talk about one more very significant key to seeing these gifts of the Holy Spirit active and operational in our lives: Now I assume that we all want to see more of the gifts of the Spirit manifested in both our own individual lives and in our corporate gatherings, correct? Well, did you know that this is exactly how we will see more of a manifestation of them? No, it will not be through us jumping through this hoop or that one. The gifts of the Spirit come to the soul that desires them. We see this principle throughout God’s Word: Jesus said in the Beatitudes that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled (Matthew 5:6). The prophet Jeremiah taught us that when we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13). So, since this is a principle found throughout the Scriptures, then we can assume that it works this way with the things of the Spirit. Yes, to those who seek the Holy Spirit and His gifts with all their heart, they will find Him and them. This is how things work in the kingdom of God, and therefore, how they also work with spiritual gifts. Now most of us are familiar with the phrase “do not quench the Spirit.” It comes from that same portion of Scripture that we just looked at in First Thessalonians chapter 5. And in the middle of some quick, points of instruction for a local church, Paul says in verses 16-22, “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” Now I don’t know if the apostle Paul was running out of ink here or if time was of the essence, but he seemed to break away from his traditional writing style to give these shorter, bullet points of how to live the Christian life. And in the midst of these instructions, he told the Church of Thessalonica in verse 19 to not quench the Holy Spirit. But I want you to notice the theme both before verse 19 and after it: Verses 16-18 contain God’s will for us in Christ Jesus—to always rejoice, pray and give thanks (Notice the reoccurring theme of “always, without ceasing, and in everything”). Church, what prefaces a life that doesn’t quench the Spirit is a consistent, unwavering and unceasing praise & prayer life! If we want to both stay full of the Holy Spirit and have Him flow through us like constant rivers of living water, then letting thanksgiving, praise & worship being continually in our mouth and having an unceasing prayer life is required. However, in the verses that follow verse 19 (verses 20-22), Paul seemed to stay on the point of testing prophecies (one of the nine gifts of the Spirit)—holding fast to the good and throwing out the evil. So how does verse 19— “Do not quench the Spirit”— fit into all of this. Well, I believe it ties into verses 20-22 regarding testing prophecies. Now how many of you have heard messages on quenching the Spirit? And in these messages, have you heard that it is our sin that quenches the Spirit? Well, I am here to tell you that our sin, shortcomings, and faults are absolutely, positively not what quenches the Spirit in our lives! For if problems in the Lord’s church are what quenches the Spirit, then what about the church of Corinth? Paul said that this church was full of divisions, strife, and carnality! They had one of their members who was having an affair with his mother in law! They even used the Lord’s Supper as an occasion for the flesh! Let me tell you—this church was full of sin, yet they had so many manifestations of the Spirit in their gatherings that the apostle Paul had to tell them to do all things decently and in order! So evidently sin was and is not what quenches the manifestations of the Spirit in our churches, meetings, and our own lives or He would have certainly been quenched in the Church of Corinth. Now the apostle Paul also speaks of “grieving” the Holy Spirit in Ephesians 4:30 and, in context, makes reference to various sins such as lying, stealing, anger, bitterness, wrath, unforgiveness etc. So, yes, there are things we do that grieve Him (i.e. break His heart, violate His confidence, etc.) and this is also echoed in James 4:5 when he says that the Holy Spirit yearns jealously over us, but these need to be understood as the Holy Spirit having an intimate relationship with us and how it hurts him when we are unfaithful to Him. However, there is a difference between grieving Him and quenching Him or else the one who wrote both of these books of the Bible would have not needed to use different terms. Amen? So, what did Paul mean when he exhorted New Testament believers to not quench the Spirit? Well, to find the answer to this question, we must first define the word “quench”: The word “quench” means to dampen a flame or to pour water on a fire of some sort. The Greek word sbennymi literally means to “extinguish, or snuff out.” In fact, in Mark chapter 9 Jesus uses this same word several times in reference to the fire that is not quenched. In other words, a fire is what is being quenched. This is important to understand because time and time again in the Scriptures the Holy Spirit is typified as fire. (We saw this as we studied the types of the Holy Spirit, right?) Didn’t John the Baptist, in referring to Jesus, say that He would baptize us in the Holy Spirit and in fire (see Matthew 3:11)? When the Holy Spirit invaded the upper room in Acts chapter 2, didn’t the Holy Spirit appear to them as tongues of fire over their heads? Yes, friends, the Holy Spirit is compared to fire time and time again in the Scriptures. But what do you never see the Holy Spirit likened to? Ice! You never see the Holy Spirit referred to as giving anyone chills! And why? It is because He stays on fire—meaning He is a zealous God, full of fervency and passion! He wants to burn bright in our gatherings—manifesting Himself in different ways to bring passion, zeal, and excitement in His people! I can assure you, my friends, if your meetings are dry and cold, then the Holy Spirit is not being manifested in those meetings! Why? Because He is likened to fire and water, the exact opposite of the atmosphere of many churches—cold and dry! When He is present, there is life, excitement, and a refreshing that is experienced! Even in the Old Testament, when the hand of the Lord came upon them (symbolic of the Holy Spirit), things happened! They shouted! They danced! They defeated troops! They leaped over walls! They outran king’s chariots! Hallelujah! But someone will invariably say, “Well Trey, I don’t agree with all of that wild-fire!” Well, I think we should have order and do everything decently too, but not at the risk of having no manifestations of the Spirit of God! As Brother Kenneth E. Hagin used to say, “I’d rather have a little wild-fire than no fire at all!”—to which I give a hearty AMEN! But my point is that the Holy Spirit is likened to fire repeatedly in the Scriptures, so when Paul says to not quench the Spirit, he is referring to pouring water on or snuffing out the flame of the Holy Spirit. HOW DO WE QUENCH THE HOLY SPIRIT? So, how do we do this? I mean, we want to learn how this is done so we won’t do it, amen? Well, just look at the following verses where the apostle of faith continues on with the same thought. Again, in these verses, Paul is calling the church to test all prophecies given and to hold fast to the good ones and abstaining from the evil. However, he says something in verse 20 that I believe gives us a clue to what quenching the Spirit entails: “Do not despise prophecies.” Friends, by the context here, the way that God’s people dampen that flame of the Holy Spirit is when they choose to despise any of the gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy! In other words, God’s church quenches the Holy Spirit when they despise the manifestations of the Holy Spirit (i.e. they put the fire out). You could even flip this statement around and say that when we quench the gifts of the Spirit—by putting no value on them, etc.—we are despising the Holy Spirit Himself. Now that brings this to a new light, doesn’t it? It would be like me, Shannon, and Levi knocking on your front door and you saying, “Trey, you can come in, but I don’t want her or that boy of yours in my house.” Friend, if you were to despise the presence of my wife and son, then you just despised me! And you certainly will not experience my presence in your home! Likewise, many churches and believers out there think they can just pick and choose what manifestations of the Spirit they want. They think that they can say, “Well, Holy Spirit we want you here, but you leave that tongues stuff and those healings on the front porch.” Well, it just does not work that way! You receive His manifestations or you reject Him! Now thank God the Holy Spirit is not easily offended or vindictive! He is not, as so many in the church today believe, quick to fly away if anyone makes a false move. No, that is not His nature! And you better hope not, because we are out of luck then. Because the arrogant person who thinks that way doesn’t have all their ducks in row like they think they do. Therefore, they wouldn’t be entertaining the Holy Spirit either if He was as touchy and easily offended as they think He is. No, the Holy Spirit will manifest in our lives and churches to the degree that we invite Him to. He is not looking for reasons to not manifest Himself; He is looking for every way to manifest Himself! And if that means, He is invited to work only during the altar call for salvation, He is happy to oblige. But those churches are not receiving the myriad of benefits that He has to offer, I can assure you! So, how do we do this? How do we stir up that fire of the Spirit in us as Paul exhorted Timothy to do in Second Timothy 1:6? Well, it stands to reason that if we quench the Holy Spirit when we despise His gifts and manifestations, then don’t you think we can do the opposite and see that fire burn brighter? Yes, if despising the manifestations of the Holy Spirit results in quenching the Holy Spirit, then honoring the manifestations of the Holy Spirit will result in fanning the flame of the Holy Spirit. Amen? Let’s look over at First Samuel 2:30 and see this principle further described: Now the context of this verse is when the man of God spoke to Eli concerning his sons whom he had failed to rebuke when he was privy of their sinful acts. And in verse 30 the Lord said to Eli, “I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever. But now the Lord says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” My brothers and sisters, this is a powerful verse! Notice, first of all, how the Lord said to this man that those who honor Him, He will honor. In other words, what the Lord was saying was that when God’s people choose to honor Him, honor will be returned unto them (like in this case when the opposite occurred—Eli choosing to keep his sons in their position knowing that they were dishonoring the people of God and their sacrifices and therefore was honoring his sons more than the Lord). Now honor is a lost art in today’s society. We live in a world where honoring others like our spouses, parents, employers, and other authority figures is not held in as high regard as it once was. But that does not mean that God has changed. Honor is still very high on His priority list—an undying virtue that should still be present in our lives. And as we see in this verse, this “honor” is to first be directed at the Lord. So, what does it mean to “honor?” The word “honor” means to place value on something or someone. It means to esteem, respect, and to have high regard for that person or thing. So, when it comes to honoring the Lord, it means that we value and esteem Him above anything or anyone else. Which is exactly what Eli did not do: This man obviously valued his boys more than he did his God. And many people, if they were honest, would have to say they do the same. But this is not okay with God. He expects to be honored by us more than anything or anyone else. But now notice the second half of this statement by the Lord to Eli because it teaches us something very important. He went on to say, “those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.” Now let me take a commercial here for a minute and say that when we think of despising something, we usually think of being consciously and even aggressively against it. In other words, we think of “despising” something as hating it, but I want you to open your mind up to another way of looking at this word. From God’s perspective, He does not look at despising Him as only being actively against Him; He looks at it as simply lightly esteeming Him. Let me explain: You see, if in First Samuel 2:30 the Lord said that those who honor Him, He will honor—meaning that what one does positively towards Him, He will return it in like manner—then doesn’t it stand to reason that when the next statement says that those who despise Him shall be lightly esteemed that those are also synonymous verbs? In other words, shouldn’t we also conclude that despising something is to lightly esteem it? It would violate the laws of Scriptural interpretation to think otherwise. So, in God’s eyes, could “despising” something really be as casual as “lightly esteeming” it? Sure! In fact, we see in Genesis 25:34 that Esau despised his birthright. Again, that doesn’t mean that he hated his birthright and wanted no part of it. No, what really occurred was he lightly esteemed his birthright, which caused him to choose a bowl of soup over his birthright. In other words, he simply esteemed at that moment a physical meal more than he did his spiritual inheritance. Again, he did not hate his birthright; he simply did not value it to the degree that he should have—as more precious than that measly meal! Now let’s look at this from the perspective of First Thessalonians 5:19-20: So, when one “despises prophecies” this does not just refer to those who hate the manifestations of the Spirit and are actively against the gifts of the Spirit; this can also refer to those who just simply lightly esteem the gifts and manifestations of the Holy Spirit. Wow! Now that just added a lot more of the church to the pool, didn’t it? Saints, I can assure you that the reason that the Holy Spirit is quenched in the many different churches, gatherings, and Christian homes is because these believers are lightly esteeming the way that He manifests! In other words, they are not placing value upon and honoring Him—particularly the ways in which He manifests in our midst! We need to honor Him—not just in respecting Him, but in actively and aggressively seeking Him! We need to be more like Jacob where He was hungry for the blessing and birthright and less like Esau where he was hungry for the things of the world. Church, I can assure you that when we get as hungry for the gifts as we do for our next meal, we will be filled with them! This is why the Apostle Paul exhorted the church of Corinth twice in First Corinthians to “earnestly desire the best gifts” and to “desire” that they may prophecy. (see First Corinthians 12:31 & 14:1)! In fact, the terms used in these two verses describe to burn with zeal, to be heated or to boil with desire. Notice all of the terms there that are associated with fire. So, it is obvious that in order to experience more of the fire, we are going to have to be on fire ourselves. So, “earnestly desiring” the gifts of the Spirit apparently makes a difference—for why would he tell us to desire them if in the desire was not found more of the manifestation of them? Church, this is the key to seeing more of the gifts of the Spirit manifested in our churches, gatherings, meeting, and in our everyday life also. Yes, this desire for the gifts is like the gasoline that will cause the fire of the Holy Spirit to burn brighter in our lives! So, it is simply in getting hungry for the gifts like Esau was hungry for that food! To earnestly desire them like we hunger for our next meal! To seek them as for precious jewels! For when we seek for the things of the Spirit with our whole heart, we will find them! Let’s get hungry for the Holy Spirit! Let’s not let a day go by where we do not say, “Welcome Holy Spirit!”—and not just welcoming Him, but welcoming the wife and kids as well (i.e. His gifts and His fruit!). And then let’s get off of our hands and start putting our hands on people! Holy Spirit, you are welcome in my life and ministry! And, by all means, bring the whole kit and caboodle with you! Bring the whole family! I am hungry to not just experience communion with you but also to experience communion with the gifts and with the fruit! I want it all! Amen! REVIEW
So, we began a new series on the gifts that the Holy Spirit last week, and church, I cannot express just how important this subject is to our church and the impact we are to have on this community. You see, the fact is, one manifestation of the power of God will have a greater impact than 10,000 words. This is why we need to recognize this power. Now this does not mean that the manifestations of spiritual gifts are going to make people believe. Signs & wonders will never create faith. What they do, though, is they open people’s hearts up to the Gospel, and then the faith has the opportunity to come. In other words, signs and wonders are the “dinner bell” to get people to listen to the Gospel. But the fact is, the Lord desires to move our body into a supernatural operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and this will not happen simply because God decides to give us these gifts; we will experience them when we decide to experience them. That’s right! He moves when we invite Him to move because He has put the ball in our court and said, “This is what is yours. I have made it available to you. Choose this life. Choose these blessings. YOU come to waters of life and drink freely.” Amen? So, it is up to us. How much of Him do we want? Do we desire to see Him turn our community right-side up? If so, then we need to press in to seeing more of a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our own individual lives and, as a result, in our church body too. So, let’s go back over to First Corinthians chapter 12 and look at what is widely recognized as the authority on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
Now again, I am not saying this mass of Christians who do not operate in the gifts or even believe that the gifts of the Spirit are for us today are not going to heaven. Heck, it might get them there quicker! What I am saying, however, is operating in the gifts of the Spirit is available to every born-again Christian and if we want to truly be a spiritual man or woman of God, then the gifts are to be a regular part of that spiritual walk. Then we saw how the apostle Paul goes on to refer to this Corinthian Church as “brethren” which should cause a collective “exhale” of relief from all of us, because this church had some serious problems! So, for Paul to refer to them as “brethren” at this point, I’m sure, was quite reassuring for this church and for all of us in the church today—because we can be full of weaknesses, yet our faith in the Greater One makes us free from the condemnation of those failures. Amen! Then we saw how Paul expresses his desire that we not be ignorant about these spiritual things. Now it is interesting to me that the very thing Paul told us not to be ignorant of is the very thing that the body of Christ is probably most ignorant of. So here, the Holy Spirit is saying to you and I— “I do not want you to be ignorant concerning these spiritual gifts!” Why did He say this? It is because the Holy Spirit knew that this very subject will be one where we will be seriously tempted to be ignorant. And, oh, how this has certainly become common place in the church today!! We saw that the word “ignorant” used here comes from the Greek word agnoia which is where we get our word “agnostic” from. On a side note—when you hear someone say they are agnostic, what you just heard is them professing their ignorance. The sad thing is that the majority of the church are “agnostics” concerning spiritual things. That’s right! We saw that you have your “believers” who whole-heartedly believe that the gifts of the Spirit are for us today, who hunger for them, and who see them manifested in their life from time to time. Unfortunately, this is the minority. Then you also have the “atheists” concerning spiritual gifts who vehemently believe that they have passed away, that they are not in operation today, and that anyone who claims to experience them is demonically inspired. There are certainly more of the former than the latter. But the vast majority of the church (just like the whole population of the planet) are “agnostics” concerning spiritual things—meaning, they are just flat out ignorant of how the gifts work, what they look like, and have certainly never seen them in operation in their church body. But not us! I said, not us! We are going to believe in the gifts! We are going to grow in our knowledge of the gifts! We are going to become wise concerning their usage and operation! Praise, God! Which again brings us to the purpose of teaching on this subject: to instill faith in our hearts for these various gifts of the Spirit and empower us to manifest the gifts in our lives while also learning what exactly these gifts are and how they work. But the main point we made last week regarding these gifts of the Spirit is that they are indeed that—they are gifts. And the reason I emphasized this is because far too many believers do not see the gifts this way, but rather see them as a “wage.” What do I mean by that? I mean that most Spirit-filled believers think that you and I have to “work” for the gifts of the Spirit; that we have to do something to see them manifest in our lives. But that is simply not true. The gifts of the Spirit are free gifts! They do not have to be earned, worked for or paid for! They are gifts, not wages! We saw that the word “gifts” Paul used to describe these manifestations of the Holy Spirit later in this chapter comes from the Greek word charisma. Now when we use the word “charisma” in our modern-day language, we use it to describe someone who has flare and a gift to influence and attract people’s admiration. It is often tied to people in positions of leadership—specifically because their magnetism is what launched them into that position. And, you know, when it comes to “charisma,” this is not something that people usually claim to have themselves. Rather, others are usually the ones to ascribe it to them. In other words, the person who possesses “charisma” does not usually go around saying, “I’ve got charisma!” No, it is recognized more by others around them. Likewise, with the “charismas” of the Spirit, most people don’t believe that they already got ‘em! They see other big-wigs and super-dupers in full-time ministry as possessing “charisma,” but they do not see themselves as having the goods. The truth is, if you have the Holy Spirit, then you have “charisma!” Yes, if the Holy Ghost resides in your heart, then all of the gifts that He gives are in you too! Amen? So, guess what that means? It means that you are gifted! It means that you’ve got flare! Yes, you’ve got charisma! Amen! So, what we did then was we looked at the various times that this Greek word charisma is used in the New Testament and saw that the common usage is that we’ve already got it! Therefore, the point that the Lord was making last week is that we do not need to have the mentality that we are trying to get these gifts of the Holy Spirit. No, we’ve already got them—for if we already have the Holy Spirit, then we have the gifts that He gives. Amen? Church, this is when I believe the gifts will begin to flow like rivers of living waters—when we tear down the dam of unbelief, complacency and indifference. Let us believe God when He says that we have charisma and walk in that favor today! Amen! Now this week, let’s begin by looking at verse 2 of Second Corinthians chapter 14 and see what Paul went on to say to them about spiritual things: LED VERSUS CARRIED AWAY Paul says in First Corinthians 12:2— “You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.” Now when the apostle Paul says, “You know that you were Gentiles” he was literally saying, “You do remember that you were unbelievers—without God in this world, right?” You see, I don’t think many Christians are mindful of this. I don’t think a lot of us realize that we are no longer idol worshippers. Why? Because many still live like the world does. Saints, it’s high time we realize that we were Gentiles, and now we are the chosen people of God. Once we awaken to righteousness and who we are in Christ, it will change our behavior and what we experience. Well, that is neither here nor there. Notice what Paul goes on to say: he goes on to describe the characteristics of the Gentiles—that they are “carried away to these dumb idols…” The phrase “carried away” literally describes “being led away.” However, this was not some gentle, soft leading; this describes more of a harsh & oppressive leading. We see this word used to describe Jesus being “carried away” or drug out of one place to another when he was being led away to Caiaphas and also to Pilate. So, this is not describing those unforceful, gentle nudges that the Holy Spirit gives us when He leads us. This is an oppressive & forced “carrying away” that is indicative of demonic spirits and not the Holy Spirit. Yes, this is exactly what evil spirits will do; they will carry us away; and not gently guide you. The Spirit of God is a perfect gentleman! He will never drag you or force you to do anything. He will gently lead you or impress you to do something, but He will never make you do anything. First Corinthians 14:32 says that the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. This means that God will never—even in manifestations of the Spirit—make you get carried away to where you cannot control yourself. Evil spirits oppress and carry people away; the manifestation of the Holy Spirit brings freedom (for where the Spirit of the Lord there is freedom)—freedom to be inspired. Has the Holy Spirit ever made you do anything to where you had no choice? Absolutely not. But ignorance regarding this simple truth has kept many of God’s children from one of God’s greatest gifts to us—tongues! Some who have actually received their prayer language, only believe you can speak in tongues when the Holy Ghost comes upon them and makes them. These are missing out on one of the advantages of tongues which is to pray in tongues whenever they want, however much they want. Then others, who believe that tongues will come out of their own, have been robbed of their prayer language altogether because of this misconception of how tongues come forth. Friends, if you have asked to receive the Holy Spirit, tongues are not going to be forced upon you anymore than the Holy Spirit forces anything else upon you. You have to speak! You have to open your mouth and begin to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives you the utterance (i.e. the words/syllables)! And the better news is, you can do this anytime you want! We will get more into this in the coming weeks. Then Paul goes on to say what the Gentiles were carried away to— “to these dumb idols.” Now he was not calling idols “stupid” like this might sound (even though these false gods and the worship thereof is indeed “dumb”). No, this word “dumb” describes the inability to speak. So, Paul was specifically referencing all of the pagan idols of their day (and ours as well) that do not speak back to those worshipping them. Oh yes, people are praying and praying and praying to these graven images, but they will not and cannot speak back to them. So, what is the apostle Paul’s point here? It is that while the Pagan Gentiles are worshipping idols that do not speak, we serve the unseen, invisible God who does indeed speak! Friends, this is the difference between us and all the other religions of the world: We serve a living God who still speaks today! He longs to manifest Himself to you and speak many wonderful mysteries to you! But not only that, He also desires to speak through you—speaking to His people through prophecies, tongues, etc. He is alive, church! He is the true and living God! He is just as alive today as He was in the Book of Acts—desiring to speak and manifest Himself through His church! Just as it was with the blood of Abel, he being dead, his blood that was poured on the earth still speaks; Jesus who is a type of Abel is still speaking today because although He was slain by His brethren, He is alive forevermore! And He still is speaking today—now through His Spirit who was also poured out on the earth! Hallelujah! Of course, we know many in the church today do not believe this. They do not believe that God still speaks to His people like He did in the Bible. But that is just not true! God still speaks to and through His church today! And He desires to do this in each of our lives. Amen! Finally, Paul goes on to say at the end of verse 2— “however you were led.” You see, this might be shocking for some people to hear, but before we became new creations in Christ, we were “led” by evil spirits. Ephesians 2:2-3 tells us this when it says, “in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” These verses teach us that before we came to Christ, we were controlled, led around, and carried away by the kingdom of darkness—some certainly more than others, but all of us in varying degrees. But the exact opposite is supposed to be true for us now that we are in Christ. Now we are to be “led” by the Holy Spirit. As Romans 8:14 says, “For those who are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” This means that every born-again, child of God, can and should be led by the Holy Spirit just as every unbeliever has been and is led by another spirit. Amen! Let me give you what I believe to be an accurate picture of what you and I have now—the polar opposite of Ephesians 2:2-3: “In which you now are to walk according to the course of God’s kingdom, according to the King of all kings (Jesus), the spirit of Christ who now works in the sons of obedience, among whom also we all are to conduct ourselves by walking in the Spirit, fulfilling the desires of the Spirit and the mind of Christ, and are now by nature children of righteousness, just as everyone else in the Body of Christ.” Glory to God! That is how we are led, church! I’ll have me some of that! How about you? So, yes, according to the First Corinthians 12:2, we do serve a God who still speaks to and through His people today! Yes, we do have His Spirit who has been promised to lead us! So, no longer are we to worship & serve a god who doesn’t speak. We have the Holy Spirit and can now expect to hear from God and be led by the Holy Spirit! Amen? Now this “being led” leads me to the point I believe the Holy Ghost wants to make today: THE HOLY GUIDE You see, I have grown up in the circles where the importance of being led by the Holy Spirit and hearing from God has been greatly emphasized. And while certainly being led by the Spirit and doing what God tells us to do are two of the most important things we can learn, there is a tendency that comes from embracing these truths that must be avoided. Let me explain: Oftentimes when someone gets the revelation of the importance of only doing what God leads or tells them to do, there is a fear that creeps in of “missing God.” What I mean is that when they begin to see that God has a perfect will for them and that He wants to lead them along His path for their life, many do not move forward until they know that they have heard from God. Generally, this happens because they fear getting out of His will and doing something that will derail His plan for their life. Therefore, the reason for this is usually not noble, but is motivated by the fear of missing His plan for their lives. But what we need to understand is that, even if we make a mistake, God is more than able to get us back on the path He has for our lives: A very close friend of ours once had this concern about “missing God.” She had a decision before her and was seeking God for His direction but did not want to do anything that would derail her from His plan and purpose for her life. So, as she expressed her concern to Him, He said to her, “If you miss Me, I know where to find you.” In other words, the Lord was settling that concern by letting her know that it is not the end of the world if she made the wrong decision because God, who alone is wise, is able to work all things together for our good and turn any mistake into a miracle. My friends, waiting on God’s direction to do the very things He’s already told us to do has never been His plan for His children! While He has always desired to lead us and tell us what to do and where to go, His intention is not for us to sit still—waiting for Him to tell us what, when, where, etc. His intention is for us to act on the direction that He has already revealed to us through His Word. He has already told us to do many things in the Bible, and as we walk in the light of what He has already revealed, He will guide us along the way. So, I believe a wise prayer is not to just ask the Lord what it is He wants you to do, but for Him to remind you if there is anything He has already told you to do that you’re not doing. As a matter of fact, the word “guide” is a much better description of how God has purposed to lead us. You see, Jesus said that the Holy Spirit would “guide” us into all truth (see John 16:14), which implies that we must already be moving. But did you know that you cannot guide anything that is not already moving? For example, in order for a rudder to guide a boat, the boat must first be moving. You can turn a rudder as far as it will turn, but if the boat never leaves the dock, it will remain pointed in the same direction. Likewise, God expects us to be moving so that His Holy Spirit can then guide us into all truth. But this is what we must understand: The Holy Spirit’s job is to guide us, not to drag us. In other words, His ministry is to help us stay on God’s path, not to tell us every little step to take. You see, there is a reason that God is likened to a shepherd in the Scriptures and not a cowboy. A cowboy drives his cattle. In other words, he makes them do what he desires. A shepherd does not operate like this. A shepherd has a much milder and gentler approach. He leads his sheep and they follow Him, and if they start to veer off the path, He gently guides them back on the path with His rod and staff. This is a perfect illustration of the ministry of the Holy Spirit! He is a Leader! He is a Guider! But He will not make us do anything. He is a perfect Gentleman, just as is all of the Blessed Trinity. He never wants to usurp our own free will but is ready and willing, when invited, to guide us into His perfect destiny for our lives! Thank you, Lord, for the Holy Spirit! GO, THEREFORE! Somebody might be thinking— “Trey, I am not sure about this. I do not think we should “move” until we hear from God first.” Well, I completely agree! But the truth is that we have already heard from God on what I am referring to. How? The Bible is God’s Word to us! So, if He has already told us to do it in the Scriptures, then we have already heard from God and do not need to wait on Him to give us further direction. For example, let’s look over at Mark chapter 16: Now in the beginning of Mark chapter 16, we have the account of Jesus’ resurrection and how this was revealed to His disciples. However, there was much unbelief in His disciples when others communicated to them what they had seen and heard. So, in verse 14 we see Jesus appearing to His disciples and notice what He said to them: “Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.” Did you know that you cannot be a Christian if you don’t believe in miracles, signs, and wonders? That’s because our faith is based upon the greatest sign of all—the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Christianity is all about miracles, church! But some will say that these signs passed away with the apostles or are no longer needed. We can’t just choose which parts of the Bible we want to believe and what parts we can throw out. No, these signs are not passed away any more than our calling to go preach the gospel into all the world has passed away. The only reason people do not believe in these things is because either:
In Jesus’ great commission to His disciples, He told them to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” Do you know what this verse should eliminate? It should eliminate the questions: “Lord, should I go to this person?” and “God, do you want me to go there?” Why? Because Jesus did not say, “Go into the parts of the world I tell you to”, nor did He say, “Go preach the gospel to the people I lead you to.” No! He told all of His disciples, for all of time, to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature! Therefore, we already have heard from God! Now, of course, we individually cannot go everywhere in the world and tell every human being the good news. That is not the point. But what Jesus meant was that we all, collectively, should be fulfilling this great commission by each of us doing our part. This is where we need to be led by the Spirit and where we need to hear from God—not to whether we should be a part of this great commission, but to where our part is. And this is my point: If we are sitting on our hands for extended periods of time waiting on God to tell us what to do, we are missing it. We should not be doing nothing and waiting on God to tell us what to do. We should be going out seeking to fulfill this command of Christ, while being sensitive to how the Holy Spirit might be guiding us to do it. In fact, the Book of Acts gives us a great example of this: After Jesus’ disciples got this directive from God, they began moving—preaching everywhere they went and to every person they came in contact with. It was amazing! If you just were to study the maps of where these disciples went, you will find that they just followed the roads they had and stopped in all of the cities along the way. And in one particular passage, we have a great example of really how the Lord has planned to lead and guide us: In Acts 16:6-10 we are told, “Now when they (Paul and Silas) had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. So passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas. And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us. Now after he had seen the vision, immediately we sought to go to Macedonia, concluding that the Lord had called us to preach the gospel to them.” Now I hope that you see the significance of this passage of Scripture. Notice in verse 6 that they “had gone”—which denotes that they were already moving, but were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. This describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide us. They were sensitive to the Spirit’s direction as they were already acting on the command of Christ. Then what did they do? Did they just sit at the border of Asia and wait for further directions? No! Verse 7 says that when they had come to Mysia, they tried to go to Bithynia, but were again not given permission by the Holy Spirit to go into the area that they intended. So surely they did not try and go anywhere else until they heard from God, right? Wrong! Verse 8 says that they passed Mysia and came down to Troas where the Apostle Paul received the vision of the Macedonian man pleading with them to come to them. But did you know that this is where many miss it? Most of us would have pitched camp in Mysia because it seems like we are running into a brick wall. And guess what would have happened? We would have “myssed” it in the process. Church, even if we are trying to move forward in doing something for God and we see that we missed it, don’t camp in Mysia. Rather, do what Paul and Silas did and “pass by Mysia” and go on to the next one! So, my point is that the great apostle Paul who certainly knew about hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit was not sitting in his prayer closet waiting for God to tell him where to go preach the gospel. The Lord had already specifically commissioned him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, so he was just acting on the Word that he had and was going into whatever gentile region that seemed best to him while certainly being sensitive to the “red lights” the Holy Spirit gave him. But as evidenced, not only in this passage of Scripture but all throughout the rest of the Book of Acts, the Holy Spirit guided them as they went. They had taken the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus seriously and were actively going into all of the world and preaching the gospel to every creature and making disciples. They had this word from God and they ran with it! Of course, there were times when the Holy Spirit had to stop them from going into certain areas and/or redirect them, but this is the pattern of how God directs us. He wants us acting on what He has already said and what is written in His Word and then He will redirect us as needed. But as I have already made the point of, the mistake so many people make is that they are waiting for God to tell them what to do and they are doing nothing in the meantime. They believe God is the “God of the Red Light.” What I mean is that they believe that they need to ask the Lord for His direction and then they sit there, as if at a red light, waiting for the light to turn green before they start moving. Let me assure you, this is not God’s plan for us when it comes to sharing the gospel with others. He wants us to act on the Great Commission and then expect Him to give us more specific direction as we are moving. As I have said time and time again: In order to receive God’s specific direction for your life, you first need to follow His general direction for all of our lives. What I mean by this is that God has already told us to do many things which are contained in His Word. So, before we seek more specific direction from God through His Spirit, we need to act on the general will of God found in the Scriptures. WHERE DO I START THEN? So, the question many of us have is “Where do I start?” Let’s look over at Acts 1:8 where Jesus gives us a very practical directive to fulfilling His great commission. In this verse, He said that His disciples would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. I want you to notice that this is progressive: Jerusalem is the city where they were currently at. Judea and Samaria was the region surrounding their city. And to the end of the earth obviously includes everywhere beyond the previous two. First of all, notice that the first place that Jesus mentioned for His Jewish disciples to begin was the city where they were currently at—Jerusalem: This should be a practical lesson for us that when it comes to fulfilling the great commission we do not need to get bogged down by the immensity of the call. As Jesus said, we just need to begin where we are at! We need to find the opportunities contained in our “Jerusalem.” So, in regards to the letting the Holy Spirit use us in the gifts, I see this as our comfort zone and the culture in which we are familiar. Where might this be? In our church gatherings, Sunday school classes and Bible Studies, of course! You see, we are to find the places and opportunities around us in the “city” in which we live and take advantage of them. Yes, we need to actively be looking for the opportunities contained in our center of influence and comfort zone as we can! The possibilities are limitless. The key is just possessing a sense of urgency and an acute awareness of the opportunities around us in the Centre of the church! Then notice what Jesus told them next: He told them that they would go into all of Judea and Samaria. As I previously stated, this was the surrounding country and region around the city that they lived. So when we have done what we could do in our “Jerusalem”, we are to move on to “Judea and Samaria” which is symbolic of the places surrounding our circle of influence. This would obviously be the opportunities we are surrounded with and see in the “marketplace” or the place just simply outside of our comfort zone like Samaria was to the Jew. You see, we all want to stay in our “Jerusalem’s” (i.e. the places where we are comfortable and that we are familiar with), but God has called us to eventually move out of our comfort zone and into a ministry that might stretch us. That would certainly be in the grocery store, the movie theatre, the airport, etc. So be aware of those “Samaria’s” that the Holy Spirit might desire to manifest Himself through you to. And, last but not least, He included all of the earth so that they were not confused about His intention to preach the gospel to every creature all around the world. So, this is a process to expand until we have covered the whole earth! Jesus has plans for His kingdom to spread like leaven until it fills the whole earth and this is only going to occur as you and I first claim our “Jerusalem’s” and then our “Judea’s and Samaria’s.” Church, the Holy Spirit has a BIG vision for you! He wants to use you in a much greater way than you can imagine to be a vessel that He can manifest through! But what I believe is the Lord’s main point for us this week is that we are not just to sit on our hands and wait for a green light from Him! He has already given us the green light through the mouth of Jesus! Jesus has already said, “Go therefore!” Go into your Jerusalem! Go into your Judea and Samaria! Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature! Amen! NO CONDEMNATION! Then notice what Jesus went on to say in Mark 16:16: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” Now notice what Jesus was saying here: He was saying that although we are to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, not everyone is going to receive the good news. Likewise, not everyone we pray for or speak prophetically into their life will receive it. Therefore, if we attempt to minister to someone and they do not accept it and it falls flat, that does not necessarily mean that we missed it. Let me ask you this: If we share the gospel with someone and they reject it, does that mean we were not led by the Spirit to share it with them? Absolutely not! So how come we believe that if we pray for someone to be healed and they don’t receive, that it must not have been God’s will for us to pray for them? No, the receiving is not our job! However, the stepping out part is our commission. We leave the results up to God and the person being prayed for. Our job is to simply be obedient to “GO.” In other words, our job is put ourselves in the position to be used by God every chance we get. And we do this by praying for every sick person and speaking into every person’s life that we have the opportunity to in every place we go— (and here is the key) while not getting discouraged if we do not see any results or manifestations of the Spirit the first 100 times. But I want you to understand something else here that we see in this verse: The Lord once showed me that not only is it true that those who do not believe will be condemned, but also those who are condemned will not believe. You see, this is another major reason why so many of God’s children do not flow in the signs and gifts that are supposed to follow them that believe—condemnation! Church, this is one of the most used weapons by the devil on the body of Christ. The reason is because it is his most effective weapon that he uses against us. A condemned Christian is already an ineffective Christian. One definition of condemnation is to “deem unfit for use” (in reference to a building) and that is what the devil’s goal is when condemning us. You see, he is not as concerned with making you sin as he is with the after-effects of your sin. The devil is out to steal your faith and if he can get you to compromise in any area then your faith will be less effective. Satan is afraid of the anointing. That is why he is constantly trying to get us to compromise in our lives. It’s because he knows that if he can cause us to quit reading our Bible, quit praying daily, or to allow sins into our lives that he can steal the anointing that is on our lives. And it is that anointing that can break the yokes and destroy the bonds in a split second which he has spent years to erect. In First Peter 5:8 Satan is called the “adversary.” This word was used in the first century to describe a prosecuting attorney. This shows us his work of attempting to condemn us. He is also called in the Book of Revelation the “accuser of the brethren.” He will constantly make accusations against us in an attempt to get us to agree with him and accept the guilt of our mistakes. The biggest mistake we can make as saints of God is to plead guilty when those accusations are brought against us. If we do that then I don’t care who your lawyer is—you will be condemned! But the reality is that Jesus Christ is our advocate (i.e. our defense attorney) and if He be for us who can be against us (Romans 8:31)! Not only that, but the Judge is our Father. So, with that scenario, how could we lose a case? The answer is what we have already learned—to admit to the guilt. So, what is the solution to this condemnation? Well, it is not to simply to attempt to avoid, resist, and dispel the condemnation. No, the best way to eliminate the lie is with the truth. It is the law of displacement. The more effective way to get rid of any lie is to replace it with the truth, because when the truth abides within you, the lie cannot stay. Take for instance darkness: The right way to getting rid of darkness is not to shovel out the darkness; it is to turn the light on—because when light enters, darkness must flee. Now what is the opposite of condemnation? It is righteousness and justification! You see, condemnation is a legal judiciary word. It is generally used in a court of law to bring justice to the guiltiest of defendants. We condemn them to death or life in prison, etc. Well, justification and righteousness are done when what is right and just is accomplished. So, my point is—condemnation must be dispelled in order to operate in the gifts of the Spirit. We must know and understand that we have been qualified and gifted already, and now simply use the gifts of the Spirit within us! THE KEY TO MULTIPLYING YOUR GIFTS Which leads me to my final point: Let’s look at another parable of Jesus which further teaches this principle I am attempting to share with you today. In Matthew 25:14-30, we have the Parable of the Talents, and in this parable, we see how the Lord entrusted to each of His servants a certain amount of talents. Now have you ever noticed that the two in this parable that were entrusted with multiple talents were the ones who ended up multiplying their talents? Yes, it was the one who was entrusted with one talent that never multiplied his, but rather buried it in fear of his master. Now do you suppose that the Master might have had a little intuition as to who would be the good stewards of what they were entrusted with and who would not? I guarantee you that He did. He saw their hearts. He knew who was wise and who was foolish. He knew who was most likely to produce more with what they had. So, he gave to each according to their own ability (see Matthew 25:15). What does this mean— “according to their own ability”? It means that the master saw and understood what they were all three capable of. So, he distributed to each one very intentionally and specifically. This means that when God sees your faithfulness and He counts you worthy to be a carrier of the keys of the kingdom, He will entrust you with more. You see, God is not stupid. He is the wisest investor in history! And when He finds someone whom He knows will be good stewards with His gospel and His power, He will show Himself strong through them. He counted Paul worthy! He took this man who was giving 110% for the work of Satan and said, “I can use this man! All He needs is a little change in perspective and philosophy and that 110% he is giving to satan, He will give it to Me.” Now understand me: I am not talking about our salvation and God’s love for us. That is the same towards us all and has zero to do with our works. What I am referring to is our hearts and how we are used by Him. We must be faithful with our gifts and then we will begin to see an increase in those gifts. Holy Spirit gives us the tools, but we have to open up the toolbox and use them. The more we lean on Him, recognizing that it's only by His grace that something good will come of this, the more we receive. But as I have personally experienced myself and witnessed in others, the main reason that we do not feel confident to step out in faith and let God flow through us is because we fear missing God—which goes back to the condemnation thing. In other words, the primary reason we do not go out on a limb is because we are scared that it might not be God’s will, plan, or timing. In other words, we want to be sure its God. But this is not how it works! You have to step out in faith first and then you will come to that place of seeing and understanding. But what so many Christians want is they want to know, see, and understand everything before they step out. Just as it is in the natural, in the kingdom of God you are going to have to go out on a limb in order to get the best fruit! But why do we fear missing God like this? It is partly because we fear failure. We are scared of falling flat on our face. But, thank God, Peter did not think like this. He stepped out of the boat, not fearing that He would sink. And that is the mentality that we need to adopt—not being afraid of falling flat on our face! Sure, we might fail. Sure, we might miss it sometimes if we live our lives like this. But what do you suppose God would rather you miss it in? Do you think He would rather you miss it in not praying for people or do you think He would rather you miss it in praying for people? I guarantee you He would rather you try to walk and fall down than never attempting to walk at all. This is simply a fact of life for any young child: They fall down several times before they truly learn to walk. Do we frown upon them when they fall? No, we understand that in order for them to learn to walk, they might have to fall a few times. Likewise, in order for us to learn to walk with God and walk in the miraculous, we might have to fall on our face a few times! And that is ok because this is how we learn to soar! You know, it has been said that the way a mother eagle teaches her young to fly is by pushing her chicks out of the nest. It is during their fall that they learn to fly. Now this is a frightening thing, but what does it require? Faith! It requires faith on behalf of their mother to push them out of their comfort zone and risk them never learning to fly during their quick plummet to the earth. But we need to understand that God is a God of faith too, and He believes in us! He believes that we can mount up with wings as the eagle and learn to soar with Him! Now the awesome thing about our God is that He does not want to push us out of our nests. He lets us choose to make that leap ourselves, just as He did not push Peter out of the boat, but let him make that leap of faith of his own initiative. God, likewise, will wait for us to jump out of that comfort zone—our proverbial “nest”—and learn to operate in the gifts and talents that He has given us stewardship over. But there is another reason why so many of God’s children fear stepping out in faith to pray for someone or speak into their life: It is because not only do they fear failure, but because they fear God! And no I am not talking about that healthy, reverential fear of God, but the being afraid of displeasing Him. Do you remember in the Parable of the Talents why the one who had only been entrusted with one talent buried his talent? It was because he “feared” his master (see verse 25). In other words, he had an incorrect view of him. In verse 24, he said that he “knew he was a hard man, reaping where he had not sown, and gathering where he had not scattered seed.” Friends, this is exactly why so many fail to grow in the operation of the gifts of the Spirit and in the gifts pertaining to their calling. It is because they have an incorrect view of God. They think He will be “hard” on them if they fail or do something wrong. This incorrect view of God keeps His children from growing. For example, many people fear speaking out by faith the utterance given to them by the Holy Spirit. And this is why they don’t speak in tongues when baptized in the Holy Spirit. One thing I have told those who maybe only received one syllable from the Holy Spirit is— “Be faithful with that one word! Speak it out and let the Holy Spirit see your willingness to be faithful in little and He will make you rule over more syllables.” One might say, “Yeah, but what if it’s not the Holy Spirit and it’s just me?” God is not going to be angry with you if you are trying and fail. It is like a parent whose child has not learned to speak yet. When the child is trying to tell daddy & mommy that he loves them, but can’t say it perfectly. Doesn’t that still bless the parents? Sure, it does! I believe our Heavenly Father is no different! He is blessed when His children are trying to obey Him! Amen? But, no, God is not hard on us, and looking to come down on us if we make a poor investment with the talents He has entrusted us with? No, God is not sitting up in heaven with a scowl on his face waiting for us to mess up so that He can pour out his wrath and fury on us! No! Just like with any of us who know how to give good gifts to our children, our Heavenly Father is blessed with our good intentions! He is pleased when we, as His children, make the effort to multiply the gifts He has given to us! What actually displeases Him is when we do not try—making the effort to walk in the gifts He has given to us. That is what God does not want to see. So I encourage you, begin to put into practice this truth by practicing praying for people and laying your hands on the sick. For as you are faithful in your stewardship of the gifts He has put on the inside of you, you will be made ruler over much! It is simply a principle of the kingdom that as you are faithful to put yourself in position for God to flow through you that He will multiply those talents! Amen! CONCLUSION Church, this very thing I am teaching you today is what unlocked me operating in spiritual gifts much more than I had been. Yes, I experienced such an increase in being used in the gifts of the Spirit such as prophecy, word of knowledge, and word of wisdom through this new way of thinking—that God has already told me to “Go!” and that I need not be condemned if I fail to get results. So, it was not because I was praying more, was any more “holy” or anything else that I was doing different. So, as I thought about it, what was the difference? And the conclusion I came to was that I have simply been practicing! For several years now, I have been laying my hands on people and speaking healing over their bodies every chance I have gotten. I have not shunned to pray for people and speak words of encouragement and love into their lives. Simply put, I have been boldly putting myself in a position to be used of God and not sitting back and waiting for God to use me in these things. I have been acting on the Word for a few years now by praying for people every chance I got—not being timid and shy and waiting for God to “lead” me to do these things. And this is a problem so many of God’s children have: They are waiting on God when, in fact, God is waiting on them! God has already told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation! God has already told us to lay hands on the sick and they will recover! God has already told us to do all of these things, yet the majority of the church is sitting on their hands waiting for a sign from God to begin doing these things. Well, here is your sign—God has already spoken because it is already written! You see, God is a God of the green light, not the red light! What do I mean by that? I mean, He is not a God who wants us sitting at that proverbial red light, waiting on Him to turn the light green for us. No, He wants us moving on the green light already given to us in His Word while being open to the red lights that the Holy Spirit might give us in certain situations. This is a big difference in mentalities. I mean, if Jesus healed them all, then that ought to tell us that God certainly is not going to be leading us to not pray for the majority of sick people that come across our path. No, it should actually be a rare thing that the Spirit not lead us to pray for someone who is sick and ailing! The Spirit and the Word agree! So, if one is consistently being “led” to not pray for someone who is sick, then I question what they are being “led” by—because it is not God’s Spirit. This is a wake-up call, church! The Lord is calling His church to no longer miss our “God moments.” No longer are we to pass by those that are lame like the man at the gate called beautiful, and are denying them their moment to receive God’s will for their life. And at the same time, we are denying God’s moment to be glorified! My brothers and sisters, we need to get off our hands and start putting those hands on people! Church, God is always moving! The Holy Spirit is always willing! He always wants to heal and manifest Himself in us and through us! God is always sitting on “GO” for He said, “Go, Therefore!” INTRODUCTION
So, as we have been camping on the Holy Spirit for this calendar year, today, we will begin a new series on the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us. And church, this is a tremendously important subject as it pertains to our church and the impact we will have on this community. As we heard Marcus say last weekend, one manifestation of the power of God will have a greater impact than 10,000 words, and we need to recognize this power. Now this does not mean that the manifestations of spiritual gifts are going to make people believe. Signs & wonders will never create faith. What they do though, is they open people’s hearts up to the Gospel and then the faith comes. So, the Lord desires to move our body into a supernatural operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and this will not happen simply because God decides to give us these gifts; we will experience them when we decide to experience them. Now I know that this statement might go against many of our belief systems, but it’s true! God does not move in an individual or in a congregation simply because He makes His mind up to move. No, He moves when we invite Him to move; not because we hold any power over Him. That is obvious. But He moves when we open the door for Him to do so because He has put the ball in our court and said, “This is what is yours. I have made it available to you. Choose this life. Choose these blessings. YOU come to waters of life and drink freely.” Amen? So, it is up to us. How much of Him do we want? Do we desire to see Him turn our community right-side up? If so, then we need to press in to seeing more of a manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our own individual lives and, as a result, in our church body too. So, let’s now go over to First Corinthians chapter 12 and look at what is widely recognized as the authority on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit: Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore, I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
SPIRITUAL THINGS Now, first of all, I want to point out something about the phrase “spiritual gifts”—and that is, the word “gifts” is in italics. That means that it was added by the translators and was not in the original Greek manuscript. However, in this case, I believe it was added correctly because spiritual gifts is the obvious context of this chapter. But I believe there is an important truth that can be seen from this point: Since the Greek word for “gifts” (Grk. charisma) was not used by Paul here, the more literal translation would be— “spirituals” (it is plural in the Greek). Therefore, a good translation would be— “spiritual things.” Now there is an important principle to understand in this because, although the gifts of the Spirit are dealt with in the following verses, Paul was instructing this church (and the universal Church as a whole) of spiritual things and their proper order and importance in the Church. So, if we desire to be “spiritual,” then these things mentioned in First Corinthians chapter 12 should be a part of our life as well. In other words, the spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit bestows on us are simply things that go into a life of true spirituality. Therefore, one cannot say— “Well, I am walking in the Spirit, led by the Spirit, and living a truly spiritual life,”—and there be a total absence of the gifts of the Spirit manifested in their life. No, these charismatic gifts are to be a normal part of a Christian’s everyday walk! Amen. My purpose for bringing this out is because of the “denominational” mentality in most of the modern-day Church where there are certain groups of Christians and then there are the “charismatic Christians.” No, sweetheart, all Christians of all churches can and should operate in the “charisma” of the Holy Spirit. Now I am not saying this mass of Christians who do not operate in the gifts or even believe that the gifts of the Spirit are for us today are not going to heaven. Heck, it might get them there quicker! What I am saying, however, is operating in the gifts of the Spirit is available to every born-again Christian and if we want to truly be a spiritual man or woman of God, then the gifts are to be a regular part of that spiritual walk. But some avoid this subject like the plague because they see “spiritual things” as “spooky things.” In other words, some think that if you are spiritual then you are weird and peculiar. No, even though the Bible teaches that we are His own “peculiar” people, the expression does not mean that we are weird, strange, or odd. You can be absolutely “spiritual” and have the same personality you had, and good character to boot. Actually, in First Peter 2:9, the word translated “peculiar” literally just meant a people who have been purchased, obtained, and possessed by God. So, no, it does not mean that we are strange; it just means that we have been peculiarly obtained as God’s own purchased possession. The Lord was the One who was peculiar—choosing a peculiar group of people for His own prized possession. So, now we have no Scriptural precedence for believing a spiritual Christian is an odd or spooky Christian! To be “spiritual” is to simply be different—but not different in personality; different in fruit! We are different in that we can lay down and get a good night’s rest in a den of lions through the peace that passes all understanding and that we can sing at midnight in prison through joy unspeakable and full of glory. We are different in that our circumstances do not mold us, but we are the same no matter what life throws at us and we change our circumstances by God’s Word. This is what it means to be spiritual. It is the opposite of being carnal, which is to be led by our senses and moved by our feelings and circumstances. To be spiritual is to be full of the Spirit and to let His fruit manifest in our lives. The fact is, many Christians willfully remain ignorant of spiritual gifts because they do not want to be different. Hey, we are different—whether we want to be or not! If we are a born-again, Spirit-filled Christian, then we are as different as night and day—which is a more literal statement than we realize because we once were lost in darkness and have been made the light of the world! Glory! IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS The apostle Paul goes on to address these Corinthians as “brethren” which should cause a collective “exhale” of relief from all of us, because this church had some serious problems! For one, Paul called them “carnal” due to all of the strife and divisions which were present in their church (see First Corinthians 1:10-17 & 3:1-4). The Corinthians had even tolerated some serious sexual sin in their church body (see chapter 5). Not to mention, they were taking each other to court, defiling their own bodies, etc. (see chapter 6). Paul even had to address basic, marital/relationship issues (see chapter 7). And I could go on and on, but the fact remains that the church of Corinth—while abounding in spiritual gifts—had some serious issues. So, for Paul to refer to them as “brethren” at this point, I’m sure, was quite reassuring for this church and for all of us in the church today—because we can be full of weaknesses, yet our faith in the Greater One makes us free from the condemnation of those failures. Amen! So then, Paul goes on to say in First Corinthians 12:1— “I do not want you to be ignorant.” Now it is interesting to me that the very thing Paul told us not to be ignorant of is the very thing that the body of Christ is probably most ignorant of. Mind you, these words were not just instructions given by the Apostle Paul; all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Therefore, Paul was being moved by the Holy Spirit to say this. So, when you look at Scriptures that give similar instruction, look at them like the Lord is speaking directly to you. And here, the Holy Spirit is saying to you and I— “I do not want you to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts!” Why did He say this? It is because the Holy Spirit knew that this very subject will be one where will be a seriously tempted to be ignorant. And, oh, how this has certainly become common place! The word “ignorant” used here comes from the Greek word agnoia which is where we get our word “agnostic” from. On a side note—when you hear someone say they are agnostic, what you just heard is them profess their ignorance. The sad thing is that the majority of the church are “agnostics” concerning spiritual things. For example, you have your “believers” who whole-heartedly believe that the gifts of the Spirit are for us today, who hunger for them, and who see them manifested in their life from time to time. Unfortunately, this is the minority. Then you also have the “atheists” concerning spiritual gifts who vehemently believe that they have passed away, that they are not in operation today, and that anyone who claims to experience them is demonically inspired. There are certainly more of the former than the latter. But the vast majority of the church (just like the whole population of the planet) are “agnostics” concerning spiritual things—meaning, they are just flat out ignorant of how the gifts work, what they look like, and have certainly never seen them in operation in their church body. But not us! I said, not us! We are going to believe in the gifts! We are going to grow in our knowledge of the gifts! We are going to become wise concerning their usage and operation! Praise, God! Which brings us to the purpose of teaching on this subject: to instill faith in our hearts for these various gifts of the Spirit and empower us to manifest the gifts in our lives while also learning what exactly these gifts are and how they work. So, buckle your proverbial seatbelt and let’s take a ride down “Charisma Court” and become truly “spiritual.” GIFTS, NOT WAGES Now the first thing we need to understand about these gifts of the Spirit is that they are indeed that—they are gifts. The reason I am instilling such an important point is because far too many believers do not see the gifts this way, but rather see them as a “wage.” What do I mean by that? I mean that most Spirit-filled believers think that you and I have to “work” for the gifts of the Spirit; that we have to do something to see them manifest in our lives. But that is simply not true. The gifts of the Spirit are free gifts! They do not have to be earned, worked or paid for! They are gifts, not wages! Amen? For instance, the first time that Paul used the word “gift” to describe these manifestations of the Holy Spirit was in verse 4 of this same chapter. And the Greek word that he used was charisma. Now when we use the word “charisma” in our modern-day language, we use it to describe someone who has flare and a gift to influence and attract people’s admiration. It is often tied to people in positions of leadership—specifically because their magnetism is what launched them into that position. And, you know, when it comes to “charisma,” this is not something that people usually claim to have themselves. Rather, others are usually the ones to ascribe it to them. In other words, the person who possesses “charisma” does not usually go around saying, “I’ve got charisma!” No, it is recognized more by others around them. Likewise, with the “charismas” of the Spirit, most people don’t believe that they already got ‘em! They see other big-wigs and super-dupers in full-time ministry as possessing “charisma,” but they do not see themselves as having the goods. The truth is, if you have the Holy Spirit, then you have “charisma!” Yes, if the Holy Ghost resides in your heart, then all of the gifts that He gives are in you too! Amen? So, guess what that means? It means that you are gifted! It means that you’ve got flare! Yes, you’ve got charisma! Amen! Do you have Scripture for that, pastor? You bet your bottom dollar, I do. Hallelujah! I looked up the various times that this Greek word charisma is used in the New Testament and guess what the common usage is? That we’ve already got it! Let me give you some examples: First of all, if you back up to the beginning of this very letter, you’ll see the heart of God concerning the matter: First Corinthians 1:4-7 says, “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus, that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” So, Paul starts off this letter thanking God for the grace of God that was given to them by Christ Jesus. Now the grace he is referring to here is obviously the gracious gifts of the Holy Spirit. And notice that he doesn’t say, “I pray to God always concerning you that God would some day give you grace by Christ Jesus.” No, he is saying they’ve already got said grace! Amen? Paul continues that they were enriched in everything by Him—not hoped to be enriched in everything someday, but they already had been given everything and were enriched in this! In what? In all utterance and all knowledge! What does this mean? Well, “utterance” describes “speech,” which is an obvious reference to the vocal gifts of tongues, prophecy, etc. (gifts that he would have to correct them on regarding their usage later in this letter). The term “knowledge” is a likely reference to the revelation gifts of the word of knowledge, word of wisdom, and discerning of spirits. But my point is that this church was already enriched in all of these spiritual gifts. Now was this just true for the Church of Corinth or is this a reality for all of God’s Church today? It is for all of us today just like it was for them 2,000 years ago because God does not include these things just for the benefit of one select group! No, He is no respecter of persons! Amen? Let’s look at some other New Testament verses: Later on, in First Corinthians 7:7, Paul begins to explain the principles of marriage saying that a man has his wife and the wife has her husband. In verse 7, he says, “But each one had his own gift from God…” The word that is used here for “gift” is again the word charisma. So, Paul also calls our spouses our gifts from God, which beautifully illustrates the point I am making. You see, if you are a man and you are married, you’ve already got a wife! It would be considered immoral for you to go around trying to find a wife when you already have your “gift” from God, right? Likewise, since we are married to the Lord and have His Spirit living in us, we need not go around trying to get something we’ve already got! Amen? So, it is not a matter of you and I doing more to qualify ourselves to be used in the gifts of the Spirit. No, it is simply a matter of believing that the Lord has already put these gifts on the inside of us, and earnestly desiring and seeking to see them manifested in and through you! First Peter 4:10 says, “As each one had received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” Notice that each one of us have received a gift—not just some of us, not just the select elect! Everyone has received “charisma” from God. Therefore, our responsibility is to minister those gifts to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. And notice the parallel yet again of the gifts God gives us to the grace of God. We understand well that we cannot earn the grace of God, right? So, why would we think we can earn the gifts of the Spirit, which are considered manifestations of His grace? We can’t! They are God’s grace to us, and we are simple stewarding that grace! They are in our possession and we are responsible for handling them in the correct fashion. So, if we don’t earn them—not receiving them by our actions—then can we lose them through our works? Nope! For Romans 11:29 says, “For the gifts (Grk. charisma) and the calling of God are irrevocable.” This means that any “charisma” of God (including the gifts of the Spirit) is unable to be changed or reversed. Another way of saying this is to say—God’s not an Indian giver! Once He gives it, He doesn’t take it away. This is something the Lord has certainly established me in. Like many of our tendencies, I believed in the past that God used me based on my performance. So, while I knew I had a gift, I still understood that the gift was not completely free. I remember a time early in my walk with the Lord, when I was busy teaching Bible studies at my local church, and I had made some mistakes at this particular stage. In the midst of having to teach these people, I felt as condemned as a man could be. If I had been given the opportunity, I would have handed that Bible study over to someone else! But I didn’t. I had to go teach it. How could God use me that evening? I felt so unworthy! But here is a good point to interject here. Was I ever worthy (when it comes to things of the flesh)? Was I ever qualified in the natural? Heavens, no! I might have been holier at other times than at this time, but again, God does not grade on a curve. So, what if I was even the best sinner at other times. The fact is, I was still a sinner. I was still making other mistakes; whether or not they were the more glaring and obvious ones. And, saints, this is all of us. None of us, even in our best state, are qualified. As my father-in-the-faith likes to say, “God has never had anyone working for Him yet that was qualified!” So, the whole time I was preparing and heading to this Bible study, I was crying out to God to please use me! I said, “Oh God, don’t let these people suffer for my failures! Please use me! Please use me!” Well, that evening I can tell you, was the most I had ever experienced the anointing of God up to that point in my life! Glory to God! He certainly used me—in a grand and glorious way! Thank you, Jesus! The next morning, I was praying and thanking God profusely! I was telling God, “Lord, thank you for using me! Thank you for using me!” And really what I saying was, “Thank you Lord for using me for me!” In other words, “Thank you Lord for not letting me have egg on my face and for showing up in spite of myself.” I heard the Lord speak in my heart very distinctly as I kept repeating, “Thank you Lord for using me.” The Lord spoke the following words to my heart: “Trey, I don’t use you for you; I use you for My people.” Then after I heard that, He began downloading certain Scriptures into my heart showing me how He uses His people in spite of their own weaknesses, failures and carnality. One of those primary examples He showed me is what we have been looking at: the Church of Corinth, the church that was enriched in the gifts of the Holy Spirit! Amen! Saints, this is the church who had so many of the gifts of the Spirit going on at the same time so that Paul had to actually tell them to do things decently and in order (First Corinthians 14:40)! Was this because they were so holy and had no sin? Heavens, no! In one place, Paul called them babies! And why? Because there were factions among them—strife, envy and divisions (First Corinthians 3:1-3). This church was even abusing the Lord’s Supper—using it as an opportunity for the flesh to just pig out and disdain the poor around them. In fact, there was even a man in the church who was having an affair with his mother in law, and this church was tolerating it! Wow! So, no, this church was far from perfect and had all kinds of problems. Yet God was still using them in a mighty way! And why? Because they received the manifestation of God’s Spirit by grace through faith. So, yes, there is hope for you and I! God has given us these gifts of the Holy Spirit, and there’s nothing we can do about it! Finally, let’s look at one more instance where this Greek word charisma is used, and in so doing, learn how to release the gifts within us: In Second Timothy 1:6, the apostle Paul exhorts Timothy with— “Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.” Again, the gift of God is already in there; put in us by the anointing of the Holy Ghost. However, as good stewards of these gifts, we are called to “stir up” the gift! One might describe this as “unwrapping” the gift that we’ve been given! Therefore, I believe we can see a principle here: When it comes to any of God’s gifts that are in you, specifically in this case, the gifts of the Spirit, you and I “stir up” those gifts through our faith that’s in us! We can do this by praying in the Spirit and simply pressing into what we have within us! The final point I believe that the Lord is making today is that we do not need to have the mentality that we are trying to get these gifts of the Holy Spirit. No, we’ve already got them—for if we already have the Holy Spirit, then we have the gifts that He gives. Amen? Well, someone will say, “Yeah, but how can we say we have something if we don’t see it?” Good question, but wrong perspective. We are called to walk by faith, not by sight—simply believing what God says is ours no matter if we are walking in the reality of it or not. So, I submit to you that we need see the gifts of the Spirit as God’s gifts to us—not things He might give us in the future, but gifts that He’s already given. Then, understanding that the Holy Spirit is just looking for an opening to let these gifts flow in our lives, we invite Him to do so in us. Church, this is when I believe the gifts will begin to flow like rivers of living waters—when we tear down the dam of unbelief, complacency and indifference. Let us believe God when He says that we have charisma and walk in that favor today! Amen! |
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