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.
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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! REVIEW
So, today, we are concluding our shorter series on the Holy Spirit entitled “The Leading of the Holy Spirit.” (If you desire to hear more on this subject, I did a much longer and more extensive teaching on How to Hear from God and Be Led by Holy Spirit at the church in 2015. So, you can either go to our website @ www.highpointmacon.com and listen to it or I will be happy to send you the notes). However, in this particular teaching on being led by the Spirit, we are looking at a type and shadow of the Holy Spirit that was used in the Old Testament to illustrate how the Holy Spirit leads us—the Cloud that led the children of Israel in the wilderness. We began by understanding that even though the cloud is what led them in their journey through the wilderness, there was still the need to listen to Moses. Yes, even though the children of Israel were being led by a spiritual thing, this did not mean that they did not need “Moses.” He was an extremely important part of Israel’s direction and guidance in the wilderness. So, we saw that Moses was a type of the Word of God—being the one who both received God’s Word for Israel and delivered it to them. He was also the one who delivered to them God’s law—His commandments, statutes, precepts, etc. So, the lesson we learned is this: Just as the cloud gave Israel direction of where to go and when to go there, they also needed God’s mouthpiece to keep them within the parameters of God’s will for their lives. And the fact is, because they had such a hard time receiving God’s directions through Moses, they were unable to possess their Promised Land. This teaches me that while the Holy Spirit dwells within us to lead and guide us, we do not need to make the mistake of putting Moses outside of our proverbial camp and only being “Spirit-led.” Why? Because the Spirit of God never will operate contrary to the Word of God. They always agree! In fact, in regards to hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit, I made the point that just as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what God’s Word is saying, God’s Word is how we can more accurately discern the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. Then, last week, we delved deeper into this supernatural phenomenon where God gave the children of Israel a cloud to follow by day and a pillar of fire to give them light by night, but we learned that even though the children of Israel were being led externally through a supernatural method, this is not the primary way that God leads His children today. No, if we are being led by the Holy Spirit then our direction is not coming from without; it comes from within! Therefore, no longer is the Lord primarily directing by the clouds in the heavens; today, the cloud is inside of us, leading us from within. Amen! We saw how this is very important to understand because if we are waiting on the Lord to lead & guide us in external ways, we might be waiting a while. Why? Because they are few and far between. However, if we learn to look within, and discern the leading of the cloud within us, we can consistently hear from the Holy Spirit and be led on a daily basis by Him. So, yes, the Holy Spirit serves the purpose to us today of “leading” us in the way in the day and giving us “light” in the night. And we saw how this is certainly echoed throughout the New Testament where we constantly see verses that teach us how the son and daughter of God are to be led by the Spirit of God. One passage of Scripture that we camped on last week was Romans 8:14-17 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” And we first learned from this that the key qualifier to being Spirit-led is having a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father—for the context of these verses paints this picture. But we looked at verse 14 and saw how another major key to being Spirit-led is having faith that we are led by the Spirit. You see, when this verse says that “as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God” then that means that if we are a child of God, we are Spirit-led. Amen? So, if this is true then what words should never come out of our mouth? “I have such a hard time being led by the Spirit … I wish I was led by the Spirit like so and so … etc.” We looked at John chapter 10 and saw that Jesus also told us that if we are His sheep, then we both hear & know His voice—and as we do, we follow Him. Therefore, we do well to believe what Jesus said and not what our experiences might have taught us. So, my point was, we need to get into agreement with God and start believing and expecting to be led by the Spirit of God. We then looked at Romans 8:16 and saw one of the primary ways that the Holy Spirit leads us today—by the cloud within us (i.e. the inward witness). We saw that this inward, co-witness is in us to testify that we are God’s children. Therefore, if that is how the Holy Spirit shows us something so significant, then shouldn’t we expect Him to show us other things in the same way? In other words, won’t He lead us by simply bearing witness in our hearts? So, the same way that we know we are saved—we just know—is the same way we will know what job to take, who to marry, etc. It is an inward witness that convinces us of these things. So, we concluded last week by looking at a few ways that this inward witness manifests within us: We saw that it can be described as a “knowing” (see First John 2:20). So, if you are like, “Ehhh, I don’t know about that” or “Ehhh, I’m not sure why, but there is something not right about that.” Those “Ehhh’s” are oftentimes how the Holy Spirit is co-witnessing with our spirit to not do a certain thing. So, learn to obey those checks in your spirit promptly because oftentimes they are the Holy Spirit leading you not to do something. Again, how many times have we all known we were supposed to do something or knew we were not supposed to do something, and we went against that “unction” and regretted it later? We have all done that. But this is where we need to learn to heed that “knowing” (i.e. those promptings and impressions). We also saw that the inward witness can be described as the desires of our heart. So, we looked at Psalm 37:4 and saw that God gives us the desires of our heart when we delight ourselves in Him. And we learned that there is another way to interpret this verse: It can be saying that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, we can trust that the desires that are in our heart are given to us by God. In other words, those desires that we have are God-given desires and are, therefore, His plan and direction for our lives. So, the point I made was that as we are genuinely seeking first the kingdom of God—abiding in and delighting ourselves in our Lord—He will give us newly inspired desires that are in line with His will for our lives. Therefore, we can trust those desires as being from Him and follow them as being God’s direction. Finally, we saw that another way that the inward witness manifests is in peace: We looked at Colossians 3:15 where Paul says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” It says in the Amplified Bible— “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as an umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] …” So, as evidenced by the Amplified Bible’s translation, the word “rule” that Paul used here literally describes a referee or umpire that is officiating something. Paul was saying that we are to let the fruit of peace be the umpire of our hearts, which means that it should call the shots in all of the decisions of our life. In other words, if there is not any peace in a decision we are going to make, then God is not in it. The Holy Spirit will let us know whether it is “safe” to proceed, or you are “out” of God’s will. In fact, we also saw that, along with peace, all of the fruit of the Spirit are indicators of our spirit and the Holy Spirit bearing witness together on something. So, all of these things—that knowing, those godly desires, and the fruit of the Spirit—are good indicators that the Spirit of God is directing us. So again, believe God’s Word which says you are led by the Spirit and pursue that good relationship of God. Then you can trust that as you are moving forward, doing what He has already told us to do in His Word, that He will guide you in every decision you make, and you will stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Amen! And again, church, this is the key to walking in all of the promises of God—learning to discern the leading of the Holy Spirit. Yes, following the Holy Cloud within us will keep us right in the middle of God’s perfect protection for our lives! HE’S GOT US COVERED! In fact, this was another benefit to the cloud that led them by day and the fire that gave them this light: they also served as protection from the harmful elements and other things. Psalms 105:39 says, “He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night.” You see, the children of Israel were walking through a desert—specifically the wilderness of Saudi Arabia. And many of us know that in a desert, the day is very hot and the night is very cold. So, God gave them a pillar of cloud by day not only to lead them but to protect them from the scorching hot sun and a pillar of fire by night not only to give them light but to give them warmth. Not to mention, that light was particularly useful in the evenings in the desert because how many of you know, there are some dangerous critters creeping around in deserts? So, this means the Lord had them “covered” both by day and by night. Likewise, the Holy Spirit covers us during the daytime and He is a pillar of fire in the nighttime. And the truth is, we all have these day and night times in our Christian walk. The day times are when the light is present, when things are more comfortable, and when there are not the intense run-ins with the kingdom of darkness. These are the good times. The night times, however, are when darkness is much more present, when we cannot see as clearly, and when it seems like we are being attacked on every side. But the Holy Spirit has us “covered” at all times! For example, we can see how the Holy Spirit helped the children of Israel before they crossed the Red Sea: In Exodus 14:19-20, we are told— "And the Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. Thus, it was a cloud and darkness to the one, and it gave light by night to the other, so that the one did not come near the other all that night.” This is exactly what the Holy Spirit is willing to do for us when we are caught between a rock and a hard place (i.e. between the Red Sea and Pharaoh’s army): He will stand in the gap for us by perhaps ministering to the one who is pursuing us and turning their hearts away from us. Yes, the Holy Spirit will defend us, if we let Him. As long as we are where He is leading us, we can expect the Holy Spirit’s protection. But herein lies a good point: What if one the sheep of Israel decided to depart from that cloud by day or fire by night? Yes, what if they left the fold and decided to do their own thing? Would it have been God’s fault if they got burned or snake-bit? Absolutely not! So, why do so many in the church today say that God led them into their particular trial and tribulation? Could it be that we left His covering? And I don’t bring this up to make us think about all the things that have happened in our past, but rather to cause us to realize that following the Lord’s direction is a key element to avoiding the harmful elements of this world. Amen? We must be Spirit-led, church! This is why that great Psalm of protection—Psalm 91—begins with the condition: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1). Notice that we are the ones making the decision to dwell in the secret place and to abide under the shadow of the Almighty. It is when we stop dwelling and abiding there that we are opening ourselves up to not being protected from the enemy. Therefore, it is imperative that we stay under His shadow. Now the shadow of the Almighty describes his protective covering. We know from the Scriptures that God has no shadow of turning and in Him is no darkness at all. So, the picture we see painted here is not of a literal shadow but of a covering provided by His presence above us like the cloud. Notice that the Psalmist says that we shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Therefore, I feel a great analogy that can be used here is of an umbrella: As we dwell in the secret place of the Most-High, we shall abide under His protective umbrella—which shields us from the elements brought on by this world and the enemy. (It also denotes the proximity in which we are to Him because to be in someone’s shadow means you are close to them.) But here is the point I want you to get today: As you dwell in the secret place, you are, by default, abiding under His shadow. In other words, when we decide to live (because to dwell means to live) in His secret place, we are choosing to abide under His protective umbrella. And, friends, this shows us again that it is in our control. Yes, it is our decision where we choose to dwell; it is not up to God. You see, I can stand beside you with an umbrella covering you from the rain, but if you decide to move away from me and do your own thing, it doesn’t matter how much I plead with you, you are going to get wet if you do not stay close to me and heed my instructions. Well, this is the choice God has always given His people—to abide under His shadow or do what seems right to us (which always leads to death.) You see, it’s like getting too close to water. If we hang around water, we are bound to get wet. Well, it is the same with God: the closer we get to Him, the more wet we get! And this goes for His protection as well. We are to abide under His shadow—meaning we are to get close to Him by following Him wherever He leads us! Now you have to be walking close to someone to let their shadow be on you, right? Well, this describes proximity. It describes being close to Him and abiding in Him. You see, if we remain, stay, and live close to Him, we are in position to have His provision and protection—not because He doesn’t want to perform His good word to us if we are not doing something for Him—but because we must remain close to Him for Him to be able to do what He always wanted to do. You see, abiding under His shadow is important! But far too many Christians are doing their own thing and have gotten out from under His umbrella of protection. So, since being Spirit-led is so vital to our lives, let me give you a few good, practical tips on how you and I can more accurately be led by the Holy Spirit and not miss it: THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES
Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Now while the word “cloud” here can describe a literal cloud in the sky, the picture that is being painted here is of the “cloud seats” (as they were called back then) in the Roman coliseum, etc. We would call these seats today “upper deck seats.” So, the context here describes the cloud of witnesses that the writer(s) of Hebrews just finished describing in chapter eleven filling the grandstands of heaven, rooting us on as we now run our race of faith here on the earth as they did. So, what we can take away from this is, we have multiple witnesses that can help give us direction regarding the bigger, weightier decisions that we have to make in our lives. You see, there will be times in our lives when we will be faced with difficult decisions. These decisions will be hard because there will be a lot of risk involved. For example, the opportunity to change jobs, relocate, or to marry; these are big decisions that we do not want to miss God on. So how do we make sure we are not missing it when making big decisions? Let’s look at Deuteronomy 19:15: It says, “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits: by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established.” As Matthew 18:16 & Second Corinthians 13:1 both put it— “…every word shall be established.” Now I understand that Moses was referring to a specific situation when he originated this often-used verse, but as evidenced by Jesus’ and Paul’s use of this saying, it has a myriad of meanings. And I believe that one particular meaning is that it is also referring to “every word from God.” So, I would quote this verse as saying, “in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word from God shall be established.” In other words, we have a way to establish (i.e. make firm and solidify) everything that God speaks to us. And what way is this? In the mouth of two or three witnesses! You see, not only do we have the inward witness, but we also have multiple witnesses that God will use to verify and establish the direction that He wants us to go! Sure, we have the inward witnesses of peace, our desires, what seems good to us, and what we know in our hearts, but there are other witnesses that God has given us so that we can make sure that we are not being led astray by what we think is God.
But let me make this point before we go any further: None of these principles that I am about to share with you will ever replace faith. In other words, faith will always be required when stepping out to follow the Lord. These other witnesses that we can use to help verify and confirm the things we believe God has led us to do will never replace the fact that we are going to have to believe God. But what they will do is help keep us from making many of the catastrophic mistakes that we hear other Christians make. For example, many of us have heard of believers who have received a “word from the Lord” and have stepped out on that word and absolutely ruined their lives. For example, a woman receives a prophecy that she is to move across the country because God has something big in store for her there, and then after she spends some time there, everything in her life just falls apart. Another example is of a guy that believes God has spoken to him to marry another young woman. He tells her that God has told him that they were supposed to get married, and then after much discouragement from their elders, they get married and miserably end in divorce shortly thereafter. These are just a couple of the examples that we desperately want to avoid.
So how do we avoid making these same bad choices that others originally thought were from God? It is through obtaining multiple witnesses. It is through not making any rash decisions when we think we have heard from God—especially on the risky decisions. So, what are the different witnesses that we have available to us to protect us from making these big mistakes? I have divided them into three categories:
Let’s look at some examples of all three of these witnesses:
Of course, I put God number one on my list of witnesses because He is by far the most important part of our decision-making process. The “God-witness” would include His Word (i.e. the Bible), a manifestation of the Holy Spirit, or any other God-inspired experience. As we have previously stated, if what we believe God is leading us to do contradicts what the Bible clearly condemns, then we can throw that idea out the window. For example, if someone believed God told them that they were supposed to be with someone else’s husband and they were committing adultery with that man, then it is rather obvious that they did not hear from God, because the Bible clearly is against adultery. So, the Word of God is a witness that keeps us from making major mistakes. Other “God witnesses” we have would be to hear God’s audible voice telling us what we need to do or, more subtly, the Holy Spirit speaking clearly on the inside of us giving us direction. But did you know that just having this one witness—the God witness—is not necessarily enough when making major, life-altering decisions? No, not because God can miss it, but because our interpretation of these so-called God-experiences can be flawed. For example, the devil is very proficient in twisting the Scriptures and making them say things that are not true. He does this by taking verses out of context and seasoning them with condemnation, fear, unbelief, etc. He also can mimic God through supernatural experiences such as voices, so-called angelic visitations, etc. because he likes to masquerade as an angel of light—making us think that it is God when it is really just him. So, although these God witnesses are good and should be held in high esteem when making major decisions, they need not be the final say in the matter. You know, God is not going to be upset with you if you ask for confirmation during different experiences. He has no problem with you wanting to make sure what you have heard or experienced is of Him or not. He actually likes it and will grant your request. For instance, if you feel God shows you something in the Word or if you feel God speaks something to your heart, ask Him to confirm His Word by giving you two or three Scriptures that back up what you have just seen. He will do it (if it was Him to start with)! For in the mouth of two or three witnesses every Word will be established!
Now let’s look at what I call the second witness—Yourself: As we spent last week discussing, there is an inward witness that we have within ourselves that is manifested in many different ways. And this witness that we have in ourselves helps us to be established in the direction we receive from God. You see, if we face these bigger decisions that we believe the Lord has put before us (i.e. things that have a lot of risk involved if we miss God), we would be wise to have not just the God witness, but also to have the witness within ourselves. Why? Because, as I just made the point of, we might receive some kind of supernatural experience that seems like God but if it does not bear witness with our spirit then we need to be cautious. In other words, we can receive a word from God but we also need to have that witness within ourselves in order to confirm what we experienced. God set it up this way! He put that new spirit within us to confirm whether the things that we hear or experience are God inspired or not. This is the second witness! But, on the other hand, if we feel like the Lord is initially leading us in a certain direction through this second witness and this is a risky decision, we can and should seek another witness such as the first witness we discussed—God. We can do this by asking the Lord to confirm what we are feeling in our heart to do and He might just give us a Scripture or two to confirm this. He might have the Holy Spirit speak gently to our heart what He wants us to do. Whichever way He decides to honor your wise request, it will give you more of a solid foundation to stand on as you step out in faith.
But not only will God confirm these inward witnesses through the God witness but He might send the third and final witness to you—Other people. Let me explain: If you have a desire to do something that you feel might be from God or if you just know in your heart that you are supposed to do something, and then you ask the Lord to confirm whether this is his plan for you or not, He might not use that first witness. He might use other people as that confirmation. He might move upon someone to come to you and say something like, “Thus saith the Lord, you are supposed to do this or that!” or He might do it more subtly by sending someone across your path to just make a passing comment that you know to be a confirmation of what you already know in your heart. Either way, God will oftentimes use people whether they know they are being used (i.e. a prophecy) or whether they do not know they are being used (i.e. just a suggestion or comment). But there are other ways to receive this third and final witness such as seeking godly counsel. For instance, if we receive either or both of the first two witnesses, we can go to someone who we believe hears from God, someone we respect, and someone we know will be honest and forthright with us. This is an important part of the third witness that God oftentimes uses to correct us when we are getting off of His path for us. Therefore, we would do good to not only listen to the godly counsel that we are offered, but also to seek out this counsel when faced with a big decision. As the proverb says, in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom. But there is another important person that God will use to help direct you and confirm His guidance for you—your spouse! Yes, God has put your spouse in your life to help you in this major decision-making process. He has put you two together to make these big decisions together and will oftentimes use them to correct you when you are making a poor decision. Now this does not give spouses out there the right to go playing “Holy Ghost Jr.” correcting and contradicting the things your spouse has on their heart to do, but it is a viable source of wisdom for us who are married. Yes, we have God which is by far the most important part of being led but we also can have a godly spouse which brings confirmation too. As Ecclesiastes 4:12 says, “…a threefold cord is not easily broken.”
So, we have three witnesses that we can use to let every word be established: We have the “God Witness.” We have the “Inward Witness.” And we have the “Other People Witness.” All three can and should be used when making these big and risky decisions. Again, none of these things will ever substitute for faith. It will always take faith to follow the Lord even if you have all three witnesses on a particular situation. But having two or three of these witnesses most certainly will cause us to have more assurance and security that we are following God’s plan. You see, a word used in wise financial investing is “diversification.” This word means “to spread your money around.” In regard to investing the experts say that we should spread our investments around and not put all of our eggs in one basket because in doing so, we limit the risk of a financial disaster. This is just an illustration of what I am talking to you about this week: It is a wise thing to not just invest all of your trust in just one witness because we are always capable of missing it. It would be wise on these bigger decisions to “diversify” and seek two or three witnesses. For in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word will be established! So, learning to follow the various cloud of witnesses that we have around is a good idea—particularly when it comes to the big and riskier decisions that need to be made in our lives. But there are some other “witnesses” that we need to avoid like the plague. And that’s what I want to end this teaching with today: NOT FOLLOWING THE CROWD
One of the most difficult things that we face when it comes to being led by the Holy Spirit is the temptation to follow other people & things rather than Him. Let’s go back over to Hebrews chapter 12 and look at the undisputed greatest example that we have of living a life of being led by the Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ! He is our greatest example of everything that goes into being led by the Holy Spirit as opposed to being led by other things! Hebrews 12:2 goes on to say, “looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of (our) faith…” Now in context, this verse is telling us who the greatest example of running the race of faith was and is, and therefore, who we should set our sights on becoming like. It’s Jesus! In other words, as good as all of those other witnesses listed in Hebrews chapter 11 were and are, Jesus is the ultimate example of someone who walked by faith and was led by the Spirit. Now a common misconception that people have about Jesus is that, since He is the Second Person of the Godhead, that He actually walked and operated on this earth as God. In other words, people believe He did the things He did and lived the way He did because He was God. This is a grave misconception! No, Jesus did not live in on this earth with any unfair advantage. Philippians 2:5-7 says that He emptied Himself of His Godhead privileges and fully became a man, and Hebrews 4:15 says that He did this so that He could sympathize with us in our weaknesses. Therefore, it is because of this that He was able to be tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. So, He is our example! He lived His life as a “born again” man (not that He ever needed to be born again, but was born with the sinless, uncorrupted nature that we receive when we are born again) who was also filled with the Holy Spirit. This is why we do not see the miracles occurring in His ministry until He was baptized in the Holy Spirit. It was because, as He testified of Himself, “the Son can do nothing of Himself except that which He sees the Father doing.” (John 5:19) He willingly made Himself of no reputation and lived the same life of faith that we do so that He could be that perfect sacrifice and substitution for us. So, with all of that said, Jesus is the perfect example of someone who started out walking by faith and who ended His race walking by faith (i.e. the author and finisher of faith). Therefore, we should look unto Him in order to see how He lived and what He taught—everything that went into His life of hearing from God and being led by the Spirit because there was never anyone who did this any better. Well, in order to learn how Jesus was so successful in being led by the Spirit, we need to look at what He was not led by:
Fear was not something that our Lord Jesus was led by. We see time and time again how He entered into certain circumstances and cities where He would have had every reason to fear, but Jesus was never led by fear, panic, anxiety, and worry. He was always led by faith! Many believers are led by these things today. They make decisions based on the fear of what might happen or the unknown. As the famous acronym for “fear” says, “fear” stands for “False, Expectations, Appearing, Real.” When we yield to fear, we are not yielding to God. Yielding to God is to yield to faith.
Obviously, Jesus was not led by money either. Judas was, but Jesus wasn’t! Many take jobs and move to other cities based solely on a pay-raise. They make investments based solely on prices and on what the so-called experts suggest. We should never take a job or make an investment solely based on the money involved. That is an easy way to miss God! Sure, God wants us to have an abundance, but He most certainly does not want our possessions to have us. As Jesus said in Matthew 6, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” You see, when we are led by money—making decisions based solely on the financial benefit—we are serving money and making it our master. This is obviously a serious matter. Therefore, when we have a decision to make, let’s seek the Lord for His direction instead of just following the $$$.
Thank God, that Jesus was not led by His feelings because if He was, we would never have had the opportunity to receive His salvation. Why is this? Because He never would have gone to the cross! Believe you me, Jesus did not “feel” like going to the cross! As a matter of fact, He felt like taking Plan B (if there even was a Plan B)! But, thank God, He said, “Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done!” In other words, you could translate this, “Not my feelings, but what you desire be done!” You see, so many people are led around by what they feel. They will eat when they “feel” like eating. They will get out of bed when they “feel” like getting out of bed. They will give someone a piece of their mind when they “feel” like it. They will give their tithe and offerings when they “feel” like giving. They will dance before the Lord when they “feel” like it. They will stop going to church when they “feel” like nobody loves them there anymore. That is exactly how you miss God—by being led by your feelings!
This ties in with being “feeling-led.” Jesus had plenty of opportunities to be led by His emotions. In one particular time, news was brought to Jesus that his friend Lazarus whom He loved was sick. Now if this would have been most Christians in Jesus’ shoes here, they would have immediately gone to heal their friend. But not Jesus! He stayed where He was another three days! And why did He do this? Well, I personally believe it was because this was a wile of the devil. You see, Jesus just came from this area and the Jews sought to stone Him there. So I believe the enemy was trying to set Jesus up to return out of an emotion so that he could have Him stoned by those same Jews. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who led Him to stay where He was for a few more days and then, after Lazarus died from that sickness, released Him to return there. You see, I can see those religious leaders who wanted to kill him just waiting around Lazarus’ home for those three days, waiting for Jesus to return so they could stone Him. But then, when Lazarus died, they left figuring Jesus was not coming after all. And this was when Jesus came in and pulled off the biggest miracle of His ministry! Hallelujah! Thank God for the leadings of the Holy Spirit! But emotions are what most believers are led by. They get hyped up about something and as soon as the emotions wear off, they seem to just not feel “led” to do it anymore. Emotions are fleeting and fickle! Just as sure as you got excited about something you can bet the bank that you will not feel that way forever. Therefore, we need to learn to know if we are being led to do something instead of just making an emotional decision; and then if we are convinced that it’s God leading us, we need to stick with it till He tells us to move on and not when our emotions have worn off.
This is a big one! Most Christians lean to their own understanding and intellect on every decision they make. They think everything has to make sense but we need to understand that God will lead us to do many things that make no sense at all. We are to lean on the Holy Spirit and not our understanding. Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Notice the first phrase in these verses— “Trust in the Lord.” Throughout the Word of God, we are told to “trust” Him. You see, being led by Him is one of the greatest ways to trust Him because we have to step out in faith on the witness that He gives us in our spirit. Then notice that Solomon says, “with all your heart.” He did not say, “with all your head.” The next phrase is very interesting. It says, “and lean not to your own understanding.” The word “lean” denotes putting all your weight on something or relying on something else for support. You see, God gave us a brain to use but here, He is simply telling us not to put our total confidence in our own understanding. We are to use our head but we are to put our ultimate trust in His understanding and not our own. When he says, “In all your ways” this denotes not in just what we consider the important “ways” but in all our ways. This includes our trips to the grocery store, drives out of town, vacation plans, etc. By using the terminology “Acknowledge Him” we can see that the Holy Spirit desires to be acknowledged in every decision we make and every direction we take. The word “acknowledge” here was used in Genesis when Adam “knew” his wife Eve. So, this word describes a closeness and an intimacy. This is what the Spirit of God desires to have with us. And last but not least, we have the promise of when we trust in Him and acknowledge Him in all of our ways. It says, “And He shall direct your paths”—not He “might” direct your paths, but He “shall” direct our paths when we trust Him and acknowledge Him. The word “direct” means “to make smooth or straight.” You see, if we are led by the Spirit of God 100% of the time, we would never get food poisoning, we would never make a bad investment, we would never get ripped off, etc. When we learn how to develop that close relationship with the Holy Spirit and are aware of Him in all of our ways, He will make our paths smooth and straight as opposed to hard and difficult.
Jesus was definitely not led by opportunities either. There were times where His followers wanted to make Him king. He even had opportunities to defend Himself when He was falsely accused. But it is very obvious that these kinds of opportunities were not God’s will. They were just circumstances, and circumstances (whether good or bad) are not to dictate our direction. This is an easy way to miss God! So many believers live their lives following whatever their circumstances dictate. If things are going bad, they quit moving in that direction. If things are going well, they continue moving in that direction. Our circumstances are not always an indicator of whether we are in God’s will or not. Some Christians will go to events and accept invitations based solely on the opportunity. The devil can inspire very well-meaning Christians to ask you to do things just so he can cause you to stumble. Opportunities are not always God!
Now back to my original question: What was Jesus led by? In other words, if Jesus was not led by fear, emotions, feelings, opportunities, or His own understanding, what was He led by? Of course, we know that He was led by the Spirit, but there was one specific way that the Holy Spirit led Him that I want us to wrap this teaching up by looking at? One of the most important lessons we can learn from His life was in three words, that He was “moved with compassion.” This is such a powerful phrase and most people often overlook this, but our Lord performed many different miracles and good works after He was “moved” with compassion. In other words, whenever He was moved with this compassion (i.e. deep love) the gifts of the Spirit followed and He did great things. Another way of saying this is that He was “led by love.” In First John 4:19 we are told that “God is love.” This little powerful phrase holds such a wonderful revelation! God does not just have love; God is love! He is the embodiment of agape—unconditional and unfailing love! If you’ve seen pure love, you’ve seen God clearly! If you’ve experienced unconditional love, you’ve experienced a piece of God! Now here is my point: If you’ve felt love, you’ve felt God! You see, the problem that many Christians face is that when a thought or idea comes into their heart, they do not feel like they know if it is God. In other words, they have a thought to go pray for someone, but they do not know if it is God leading them to do that or if it was just them thinking this up on their own. Well, let me give you one major indicator if it’s God or not: If its love; It’s God! If it is not pure, genuine love then you better think twice about it. You see, since God is love, then it stands that when we have compassion just well up in our hearts for someone or for something that it is God “moving” us with “compassion.” And you can bet that if we follow that compassion that there is a miracle on the other side of obedience! The apostle Paul said in First Corinthians 12:31, “But earnestly desire the best gifts, and yet I show you a more excellent way.” A way to what? A way to desire the best gifts! The greatest way to be used in the gifts of the Spirit is to flow in love. The best way to flow in God in general is to flow in love since God is love! Where love is there God will be also! You see, we need to understand that the vast majority of people (even good, well-meaning church people) are not led by the Spirit. And the devil is going to make sure you are faced with people who are going to tell you that you are going the wrong direction when you are following the cloud. Yes, people that you might love and trust will try and talk you out of following the leading of the Holy Spirit. You can bank on that! Now that does not automatically mean that we are right and they are wrong. It can be that we are the ones who are missing it and they are the wise counsel that we need to keep us from making a mistake. However, if we know that we have heard from God and we are convinced that the Holy Spirit is leading us to do something, then we must obey God and not man. So, it comes down to discerning whether what we are feeling led to do is the Lord or whether it is just us. But let me end by giving you one more tip that is also vitally important: GUIDED BY THE GREEN LIGHT
However, what we need to understand that God does not want us to sit around and wait on Him to spell out everything He wants us to do. I know this to be true from personal experience and through the examples of others. I have seen many well-meaning and sincere Christians who have sat for years, waiting on God to tell them where to go and what to do and are still waiting today. You see, the common denominator with all of these manifestations of the inward witness? They all require action and movement on our part! This is verified in John 16:13 when Jesus told us that the Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. Well, you cannot guide something that is not already moving, can you? Saints, you can sit on a boat and try to turn the rudder to the left and to the right but if the boat is sitting idle, it’s not going to turn. But if you take that same boat and get it moving a bit and then turn that same rudder ever so slightly, you will begin to turn the boat. But, with this example, all you are essentially doing is guiding the boat. So, for the Holy Spirit to “guide” you, then the assumption is that you are already moving. Moving where? Moving in the direction that is already laid out to you in God’s Word! For example, this principle is well-illustrated throughout the Book of Acts where the Holy Spirit guided them as they went. You see, they had taken the Great Commission of the Lord Jesus seriously and were actively going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature—thus 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 which God desires us to follow as well: He wants us to act on what He has already said and what is written in His Word and then He will redirect us or change our course as needed. But, like I said, the mistake so many people make is that they are waiting for God to tell them what to do and doing nothing in the meantime. You could say 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 waiting for the light to turn green before they start moving. Friends, again, this is not God’s plan for us. He wants us to act on the principles and admonitions found in His Word and then expect Him to give us more specific direction as we are moving. Here is a good truth: In order to get God’s specific direction, you first need to be doing His general direction (i.e. His Word). Now, on the other hand, there are Christians who have no clue that God actually wants to lead and direct them. They just do whatever they want expecting things to work together for their good. That, of course, is the other ditch that we want to avoid as well because we cannot expect the fruit of the wrong decisions we make to be the will of God for our lives. God has a good, acceptable, and perfect will, and it is up to us to understand what His will is (Ephesians 5:17). So, here is my point today: God wants you to first act on His Word—the More Sure Word of prophecy! Make sure you are following His will for the church in general—going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. Speak words of edification, exhortation and comfort into your neighbor and, by all means, heal the sick, cast out demons, and bring His kingdom with you wherever you go. And if the Lord tells you to slow down, turn this way, or gives you clear direction in how to accomplish this, by all means, obey what seems good in your heart. Know that He will keep you on the path He has for you and He will guide you into all truth. But again, in order to be guided, you have to be moving. He is the God of the green light, saints! So, go therefore! Walk on the path God has for you and if He prompts you to turn to the left or the right, know that He is directing your path and ordering your steps. Just enjoy right relationship with God—abide in Him and let His Words abide in you—and then trust that He puts His desires in our heart. Then just do what seems right and good in your heart. Amen! For example, how many of you know that when your children come to a certain age, you do not want them asking you if they should do this or do that. No, you want your children to grow up and start making wise decisions for themselves. In fact, this is a lesson that pertains to the subject we are currently studying on Wednesday nights: In Second Corinthians 9:7 says, “So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” So, in this situation, Paul did not exhort them to pray about it or seek God’s direction on it. No, he just said, “Give as we purpose in our heart.” In other words, do what you have on your heart to do. You see, we already have God’s Word concerning giving. You don’t need the Lord to tell you to do that because He already did. But what we do now, while seeking to fulfill the admonitions and principles in the Scriptures, is follow our hearts. Why? Because it is through the witness that you get in your heart that God is going to lead you in what to do. Now I am not saying that we should never seek the Lord’s will regarding decisions we are to make and paths we are to take, but my point is, we need to also avoid over-spiritualizing everything and just simply follow the impressions the Spirit drops in our heart. So, my point is—if you are a child of God, filled with the Holy Spirit and are delighting yourself in God, you can trust the desires of your heart. Begin to move and act on those desires—trusting the Lord that even if you make a bad decision, the Lord will still accomplish His purpose for your life. Sure, acknowledge the Lord in all your ways by asking Him what He would have you to do but then don’t just sit there and wait forever for Him to write it on the wall. Trust that He put those desires in your heart and then do those things that you purpose in your heart to do. And when it comes to the bigger decisions, follow the cloud of witnesses that you have around you. Utilize the God-witness, the witness in yourself, and the witness of wise counsel around you. But be careful not to follow the crowd; only follow the cloud—that is, the Lord’s direction given to you. Church, the cloud is within you! Follow those leadings, promptings and impressions! He will never lead you astray, but always into your Promised Land. Amen and amen! REVIEW
So, last week, we began a new series on the Holy Spirit entitled “The Leading of the Holy Spirit.” In it, I explained that as we have most recently been covering the various types of the Holy Spirit, I came across another type of Him that “led” me to change gears and have us camp on this other important aspect of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, we are “dovetailing” (pun intended) our most recent series with this new and very practical one on the Holy Spirit. I explained last week that, in my opinion, being led by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important truths we can ever learn. Yes, it is an extremely practical and absolutely essential lesson that every believer should have a working knowledge of in their life. The reason is because the Holy Spirit lives in us to (among other things) lead and guide us into all truth—and this includes our daily walk. He will guide us into where to go, when to go there, etc., and I am persuaded that if we will learn to discern how He leads us, we will always be led into the perfect and complete will of God for our lives. Church, far too many Christians walk like the world walks—and as a result are blindly groping around, trying to figure things out. But for a Spirit-filled believer, we don’t have to lean to our own understanding. We can trust in the Holy Spirit to direct our paths, hallelujah! So, we began studying the leading of the Holy Spirit last week by looking at another type of the Holy Spirit that is less known in the Scriptures—the Cloud. We began by looking at Number 9:15-18 and saw how the cloud was a source of direction for the children of Israel. Again, these verses read— “Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.” First of all, we noticed how on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, that the cloud covered it. One could read this as to say, that after Jesus—the One who came and tabernacled among us (see John 1:14)—was raised up from the dead, the Holy Spirit was now made available to all who would be born again and become the Lord’s Tabernacles. But this can also show us the permanence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Jesus said, He will abide with us forever! We see this in this passage—because verse 16 says, “So it was always…” So, no longer should we be praying “Take not your Holy Spirit away from me!” as David did. No, if He is there, He will remain there! As it is always! Glory to God! However, we also saw that— “Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.” So, while the cloud remained present, sometimes it moved. And when it moved, the children of Israel moved. In other words, the children of Israel—a type of God’s people today—were led by the cloud, following it wherever it went. Therefore, since the Holy Spirit is the cloud to us today, we must learn to follow His lead—going where He tells us to go and staying where He tells us to stay. And here is another important point to take away from this passage—as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle, they remained encamped: You see, while we certainly want to be led by the Spirit, sometimes He will tell us to camp somewhere for a period of time. In other words, while He is always leading us, that does not mean He is always moving us. Therefore, it is imperative that we learn to discern when He’s moving us to something new and when He’s wanting us to “camp” in the last place He moved us to. Speaking of “camping,” last week, we “camped” on a point that I consider to be extremely important as it pertains to being led by the Spirit: Even though the children of Israel were being led by the cloud, this did not mean that they did not need “Moses.” No, Moses was an extremely important part of Israel’s direction and guidance in the wilderness. In fact, the vast majority of their generation did not enter into the promised land because of their lack of willingness to hear their leader, Moses. We have no record that they rebelled against following the cloud, but we certainly do see them rejecting the Word God delivered to them through His servant. So, we saw that Moses was a a type of the Word of God—being the one who both received God’s Word for Israel and delivered it to them. He was also the one who delivered to them God’s law—His commandments, statutes, precepts, etc. And we saw that Moses wrote significantly more of the Bible than any other person did (The apostle Paul writing more books of the Bible, but much less words & verses). So, the lesson we learned is this: Just as the cloud gave Israel direction of where to go and when to go there, they also needed God’s mouthpiece to keep them within the parameters of God’s will for their lives. And the fact is, because they had such a hard time receiving God’s directions through Moses, they were unable to possess their Promised Land. This teaches me that while the Holy Spirit dwells within us to lead and guide us, we do not need to make the mistake of putting Moses outside of our proverbial camp and only being “Spirit-led.” Why? Because the Spirit of God never will operate contrary to the Word of God. They always agree! Amen? We looked at Second Peter 1:16-21 and saw how the Apostle Peter called the Scriptures “the more sure word of prophecy.” Yes, even over the supernatural experiences he had on the Mount of Transfiguration, Peter said the “more sure” thing is the written Word of God. And why? It is because the devil operates in the supernatural too. Therefore, some seemingly supernatural experience we have could easily be the devil masquerading as an angel of light. This is such a huge point, my friends! If Peter said that his experience with the Lord Jesus Himself was subordinate to what is written in the Holy Scriptures, and if Peter said that the prophecies recorded in the Word of God are more of a sure thing than this particular experience, then we had better not let any experience we ever have or any “prophecy” we might receive be more convincing to us than what is written in God’s Word. Now again, I am certainly not trying to downplay the importance of hearing from God in other spiritual ways. His supernatural methods of leading and guiding us still are extremely relevant and necessary today, but my point is that we are never to just blindly follow a spectacular experience just because it was supernatural. No, we should always measure every experience we have by the Word because the Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God. Likewise, this does not mean that being led by the Spirit is less important than the Holy Scriptures. Both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are extremely important and work together to lead us into all truth. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit living within us—the voice of God—to lead us and guide us, but we also have the “map”—God’s Holy Word—that spells out to us the direction we are to take. We have the map (i.e. the Word) and we have the One who drew the map to interpret it for us (i.e. the Spirit). This, my friends, is a fail proof method! There is no excuse for us not always being led out of harm’s way and always into triumph! So last week, in regards to hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit, I made the point that just as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what God’s Word is saying, God’s Word is how we can more accurately discern the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. We learned this by looking at Hebrews 4:12 which reads— “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” So, we learned that His Word is living and life-giving. It is not just any old book. It is alive and, therefore, is able to give life! It is also active and working. Therefore, the Word works. Amen? So, I likened the Bible to a diamond or prism—because when the Holy Spirit shines His light on a Scripture, it can be a beautiful thing in our sight. However, if the Word of God is looked upon with no “light” (i.e. no faith and no Holy Spirit), its beauty will not be fully realized. But the truth we took away from Hebrews 4:12 is that His Word also has the power to divide between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discern between the thoughts and intents of the heart. Friends, this is so huge! How many of you have ever said either— “I am not sure if what I am hearing is God or if it’s just me!” or “I am confused as to whether this is God leading me to do this or if it is just my own desires.”? If we were all honest, we’ve all had these thoughts. Well, we learned last week how to better know the answer to this: The Word of God is the thing that helps divide between those thoughts of “Was that just me and my emotions or was that a Spirit-inspired idea?” In other words, like Moses was there to show the children of Israel how to discern all of these supernatural experiences like the cloud, the Word of God is able to discern between what is just our own thoughts and what is a spirit-inspired intention. What I mean by that is, when we put God’s Word at a place of importance in our heart, it will help us distinguish between when what we are hearing on the inside is God’s voice or another voice. We looked at Psalm 119:11 where David said, “Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You”? We saw that just as “sin” literally means to “miss the mark,” the Holy Spirit was telling us that when we hide God’s Word in our hearts, we can keep ourselves from missing it! In other words, God’s Word abiding in our hearts gives the Holy Spirit so much more to work with! As we hide His Word in our hearts through reading, studying, and meditating it, we are loading our heart with various truths to remind us of when we need direction and guidance from Him. Church, God’s Word—the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Moses is a type of, says to you and I today, “Follow Me!” This is the first step into a Spirit-led life where that Holy Spirit cloud leads us into our Promised Land. Amen, and Hallelujah! LED FROM WITHIN, NOT WITHOUT So now that we have established ourselves in the fact that God’s Word is both what keeps us in the parameters of being guided by the cloud and what helps us to better be guided into all truth, let’s move on to seeing the other predominant way that the Holy Spirit leads you and I today. Let’s look over at another description of the cloud found in the Book of Exodus: Exodus 13:21-22, says this regarding the cloud: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night. He did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people.” Notice that this pillar of cloud & fire (that God never took away, mind you) served the purpose of “leading” the way in the day and giving them “light” in the night. I don’t know about you, but this sounds like some New Testament Scriptures to me—verses that teach us how the son and daughter of God are to be led by the Spirit of God. So, there is a point that is important for us to understand—even though the children of Israel were being led externally through a supernatural method, this is not the primary way that God leads His children today. No, if we are being led by the Holy Spirit then our direction is not coming from without; it comes from within! Therefore, no longer is the Lord primarily directing by the clouds in the heavens; today, the cloud is inside of us, leading us from within. Amen! This is very important to understand because if we are waiting on the Lord to lead & guide us in external ways, we might be waiting a while. Why? Because they are few and far between. However, if we learn to look within, and discern the leading of the cloud within us, we can consistently hear from the Holy Spirit and be led on a daily basis by Him. Let’s look at one of our primary examples of this in Romans chapter 8: Romans 8:14-17 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” THE KEY QUALIFIER Now, first of all, notice the context of these verses: It is the relationship between a son and his father. So herein lays a very good foundation to being Spirit-led. You see, when we start talking about being led by the Spirit, it is imperative that you and I are walking in personal relationship with God. Why? Because, as we will learn, the leadings of the Holy Spirit are very subtle and one can think that they are being “led” when in reality it is just their flesh, emotions, etc. So, having a personal relationship with God is extremely important to being led by the Holy Spirit because if you are walking in the flesh, you probably don’t want to trust how you’re being led. Why? It is because you can very easily mistake one of these promptings as being the Lord when it is just your flesh or emotions. We will get into this later, but when we are delighting ourselves in Him, it is easier to trust our desires as being from the Lord. That is why the Lord said in John chapter 15 that when we abide in Him and His Words abide in us, we can ask whatever and it will be done for us. This is because as we are whole-heartedly inclined towards the Lord, our desires will be more in line with His and we are thereby, praying according to His will. In other words, if we are not delighting ourselves in the things of God and are lukewarm in our relationship with Him, the desires of our heart will probably be the exact opposite of God’s will for us. You see, we absolutely must be walking closely with the Lord and seeking Him for these divine guidance principles of the inward witness to work. But the bottom line is that we should always seek to be in a good relationship with the Lord above anything else regardless if this was a benefit or not. Having this close relationship with the Lord is the foundation from which all success comes in the Christian life, and this includes being led by the Spirit. If we try and build our Christian lives without this foundation, we are doomed for failure and will live extremely frustrated lives. So, I would encourage all of us to pursue this communion with the Lord above all because a byproduct of seeking first the kingdom of God is that all these things will be added to us, including the ability to hear from God and be led by the Spirit—for it has everything to do with what we are talking about over the next couple of weeks. HIS SHEEP HEAR HIS VOICE But let’s go back to verse 14 and notice how the apostle Paul says that as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God: So, if this statement is true then what should never be words that come out of our mouth? “I have such a hard time being led by the Spirit … I wish I was led by the Spirit like so and so … etc.” No, this verse says that sons and daughters of God are led by the Spirit of God. I have heard this time and time again from Christians—how they didn’t feel like they could hear from God and how they wished they could be more led by the Holy Spirit. When I hear this, what I want to tell these Christians is—If you are a “follower” of Jesus Christ, you are indeed “led” by Him! Yes, you do hear from God! How do I know this? From two passages of Scripture in John chapter 10: Let’s look at John 10:3-4 where Jesus said, “To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.” Notice the repetitive references to the Lord’s sheep hearing His voice and the sheep following Him. In these verses, Jesus is affirmatively saying that His own hear His voice and are led by Him. So, if Jesus—the Lord our God—says that we hear His voice, shouldn’t we come into agreement with Him and start believing that we hear His voice? Of course, we should! But you will hear believers cite their own experiences saying, “But I don’t hear His voice! I have asked and sought to hear from God, but I just don’t hear anything.” This is when we must base our belief system upon the foundation of His Word. As the Apostle Paul said in Romans 3:4— “Indeed, let God be true and every man a liar.” In other words, if our experiences and testimonies conflict with what God said in His Word, then those things are a lie in comparison. Saints, God’s Word is absolute truth. So, if He says here that we hear His voice, then we hear His voice whether we feel like we do or not. This is one of the cornerstones of hearing from God and being led by Him—faith that we do and are! You see, we get what we expect from God (based on what He has spoken and promised to us). Things that God has provided are only going to be fully manifested in our lives as we actively put our hope in those promises and mix our faith with them. Everything from our initial salvation to hearing His voice is fully realized through our faith and hope—our confidence and expectation of them. So, we need to start believing and confessing that we do hear from God, for He has said that His sheep hear and know His voice! But someone might say, “Well, maybe I do hear something, but my big problem is that I do not know when what I am hearing is God or the devil, the Lord or myself.” I am glad you made that point because notice again what our Lord said: He said in verse 3 that His sheep hear His voice, but at the end of verse 4 He said that we know His voice! That means that not only do we hear from God, but we know when what we are hearing is God. And verse 5 of John 10 goes on to say, “they will by no means follow a stranger” because “they do not know the voice of strangers.” But the general problem here is us. It is not that God is not speaking; it is us who are not hearing correctly: A good example of all of this is that just as there are signals being transmitted in the air all around us right now—radio frequencies and television signals—there are also spiritual messages being transmitted in the atmosphere around us right now. But how many of you know that it would be ridiculous for one to say that they don’t believe that there are these signals and frequencies in the room with us right now just because they don’t see or hear them? So, regarding this example, you can tell some people this and they might counter by saying— “I don’t hear spiritual frequencies and I don’t see these spiritual signals.” Well, it might not be that it is the transmitter that is broken. It might be that the problem is with their receiver! You see, all of these unseen programs are being constantly broadcast, but if you do not have a receiver of some sort, you will be oblivious to them and won’t see or hear anything. And it is like that with all of those spiritual realities we are promised exist. Friends, there is a spiritual world around us right now that actually is more real than this natural world we live in. Why? Because the spiritual world parented this natural world. All things were made by the things unseen (see Hebrews 11:3). That’s what faith does: It believes that the things that are made were created by unseen things. This verse teaches us an incredible lesson—that the Word of God was the parenting force that created all the things which are seen. And, bless God, you can bet the bank that it still works this way today! God’s Word can bring to reality in the natural realm things that are already a reality in the spiritual realm. The mirror of God’s Word reflects what is seen in God’s world. So, you see, it’s already there and we are not trying to get God to do something that He has not already done. No, we are simply positioning our receiver to hear and see what He has already done. Amen! And this certainly pertains to this promise of hearing God’s voice. But I personally believe that the reason that many people’s hearing of God’s voice is so fuzzy is because they simply have not learned how He is communicating to us. So, as Romans 8:14 says, a son or daughter of God can expect to be led by the Spirit of God. But many will read this verse and say something like— “Oh, well, I better start being led by the Spirit of God so that I can become a child of God.” No, it is actually saying the opposite: It is saying that the by-product of being a child of God is that you are led by the Spirit of God. Now I have heard some try to make a distinction here saying that being led by the Spirit requires great maturity—thus the reason Paul refers to the phrase “sons of God” like these believers are the grown up ones, but I disagree with this mainly because Paul uses the terminology “children of God” and “sons of God” interchangeably. In fact, you can look down at verse 16 and see where he uses the term “children” and in Galatians 3:26 says, “For we are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” No, I see all of this as an excuse of why more people are not led by the Spirit. And whether you were just saved yesterday or 50 years ago, you can be led by the Spirit of God just the same. In fact, I believe many baby Christians are able to be led better than Christians who have been saved for a long time because their hearts are more soft, pliable and sensitive to His direction—not being hardened by the constant friction of not walking in the light that they have. But notice again that the Bible tells us that the sons (or daughters) of God are led by the Spirit of God—not can be led, not should be led, but are led! This verse is basically equating “as many” who are led by the Spirit to “as many” are the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, if we are God’s children we are led just as if we are God’s sheep, we follow the Shepherd. So, again, we need to get into agreement with God and start believing and expecting to be led by the Spirit of God. THE INWARD WITNESS But let’s look back at our passage of Scripture in Romans chapter 8 and let me prove to you that you do hear from God and you are led by the Spirit (and this will also illustrate to you how God speaks to us and leads us today): First of all, skip down a verse in Romans 8:16: It says that the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Well, how do you know that you are saved and a child of God? If someone were to ask us how we know we are born again, our response would generally be something like— “I just know.” It is just a “knowing” that we have on the inside of us. This “knowing” is the Holy Spirit communicating with our spirit that we are the children of God. We just know it in our knower—and this “knowing” is manifested in different ways (which we will get into shortly). Well, it stands that the same way He communicates to us that we are saved is the same way He will communicate to us to turn left, stop, go there, etc., right? He will communicate to our spirit— our inner man—and this is evident by just knowing something in our knower. Therefore, He will bear witness with our spirit on other things as well and these situations will be recognized as well by that same “knower.” For example, after you got saved and received the Spirit of God, what happened when you did something wrong or were about to do something wrong (i.e. hurting someone)? You had no problem knowing/discerning that what you did was wrong, did you? Of course not! That was God speaking to you/ leading you. You just knew that you were wrong and did not necessarily need to know what the Bible said about it. Something just irked you when you did it. This is something God just showed me: how is it that we can hear from God so clearly and precisely when we miss it, but yet it seems so much harder to hear Him when it comes to seeking direction? In other words, why is it we know God is telling us we are doing something wrong and it is so hard to hear from Him when we need to know what to do? I believe this is the case because God’s desire is for us to look into His Word and find the general direction that we should be going. And once we begin to move in that direction, the Lord will keep us on our assigned path by correcting us when we are beginning to get off that path. But my point is that you have no problem hearing from God when you miss it, so you do indeed hear His voice and are led by His Spirit. Therefore, His sheep do hear His voice and those who are sons of God are led by the Spirit of God. So, how does the Holy Spirit lead us? Again, Paul answers this question in verse 16 when he says, “the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” Now the following is an important point to understand: It is not just the Holy Spirit who is testifying to the fact that we are saved; our spirit is also witnessing to us that we are a child of God. Romans 9:1 says, “I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit…” Have you ever told someone something that was not exactly the truth and then you just knew it on the inside of you after you said it? Man, often when I have done this, my conscience just smote me. Well again, that is how both our spirit and the Holy Spirit are bearing witness in us! Now here in Romans 9:1, we have the same Greek word and it is indicating that Paul’s conscience was bearing witness along with the Holy Spirit. So, what Paul was saying in Romans 8:16 is that the Holy Spirit is bearing witness along with our spirit—indicating that our spirit is also testifying to the fact that we are God’s children. So, we have a co-witness on the inside of us that will testify concerning what the Lord is saying to us—our own spirit & the Holy Spirit. Saints, this is a fail proof method for hearing from God because if you have two witnesses speaking up on the inside of you, you have a conviction. Doesn’t the Bible say that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established? Well, this is how we know the truth of what God is leading us to do—by these two witnesses. Now, this week, I want to give you a few examples from the Scriptures how this inward witness manifests in us. In my experience, it is different for everybody. One person might describe this inward witness one way while another would describe it another way. I have heard people describe it as a thought, impression, and an idea. I have heard others describe it as a peace or an excitement they get. So, suffice it to say, this inward witness is manifested in a variety of ways—depending on the personality of the person and how they sense this kind of leading. So, in conclusion, as promised, let me give you a couple of ways that this inward witness can be manifested in one’s life: THE KNOWER The first one (as we have briefly mentioned already) is a simple “knowing”: Now, again, how do you know you are saved? You just know! You just know God is real! You just know heaven is real! You just know the Bible is true. You just know. You just know. You just know. So, if the Holy Spirit is bearing witness with your spirit that you are God’s child, do you suppose He will bear witness with your spirit on anything else? You can bet your bottom dollar He can, and you can bet that He AM! Yes, the Holy Spirit communicates everything from your position as a son of God to what job you are to take. Amen! In other words, this is how He is communicating to you everything you need to know—through this inward witness. And this is totally Scriptural too … First John 2:20 says, “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” Now I know we like to make reference to the anointing as some separate grace associated with our gifting and callings, but the truth is the anointing is the Holy Spirit. Just as Joel prophesied concerning the Holy Spirit—He has poured out His Spirit on all flesh. What was God pouring? He was pouring out what was symbolized through anointing oil—the Holy Spirit who would come upon us! So now today, we all have the Anointing poured upon us—which enables these gifts to manifest in the Body of Christ. But here, we see that the Anointing, the Holy Spirit, causes us to know all things and communicates those things to our spirit. Therefore, when direction comes, you will know it! Did you ever wonder how in all of these testimonies of heavenly experiences how they just knew everyone’s name without being told? It was as if they would see someone and just know who that person was. Well, why is that? It knows! So, when these individuals visited heaven, they were not in the body. So, they were operating solely from their spirit—which knows everything. So, if you are like, “Ehhh, I don’t know about that” or “Ehhh, I’m not sure why, but there is something not right about that.” Those “Ehhh’s” are oftentimes how the Holy Spirit is co-witnessing with our spirit to not do a certain thing. So, learn to obey those checks in your spirit promptly because oftentimes they are the Holy Spirit leading you not to do something. Again, how many times have we all known we were supposed to do something or knew we were not supposed to do something, and we went against that “unction” and regretted it later? We have all done that. But this is where we need to learn to heed that “knowing” (i.e. those promptings and impressions). However, those uneasy feelings can also just be your head trying to talk you out of what your heart is telling you to do. That is why we must first be honest with ourselves and humbly accept the correction and then practice being led through trial and error. We should do this on the small things like asking for direction on what route to take home from work or asking Him to help you find something that you misplaced. You ask the Holy Spirit things such as this and then wait till He bears witness with your spirit. Then when something just pops into your heart or you just “know” something, act on it! Sometimes you’ll miss it and sometimes you’ll hit it right on the head. Just learn from your mistakes and from your successes (even journaling everything down to the minutest detail like how you were feeling, the fears, etc. This would be wisdom) and you will grow in your ability to be led by your “KNOWER.” You see, we don’t have to know everything; We just need to know the One Who does know everything! And when we learn to detect the “KNOWER” we will know everything we need to know. THE DESIRES OF OUR HEART But there are other ways that this inward witness is identified too. Let’s look at another way that it can be described—our desires. You see, one of the ways which a born-again child of God might know they are saved is by their desire, hunger and thirst for the things of God. I mean, that is one of the ways many of us identified the baptism of the Holy Spirit, amen? When we were filled with the Holy Spirit, a zeal entered us and we desired the things of God much more than we did before. So, I see the desires of our heart as one way that the inward witness manifests in us. And again, this is Scriptural: Let’s look over at the 37th Psalm: Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord and He shall give you the desires of your heart.” Now this verse can be interpreted in a couple of ways. The most common way is that as we delight ourselves in the Lord—seeking and desiring Him—He will give us the things we desire in our hearts. But there is another way to interpret this verse: It could be saying that as we delight ourselves in the Lord, we can trust that the desires that are in our heart are given to us by God. In other words, those desires that we have are God-given desires and are, therefore, His plan and direction for our lives. Let’s compare that latter interpretation to John 15:7— “If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.” Here we see the New Testament counterpart to this promise in Psalm 37:4. You see, Jesus was not teaching that if we just abide in Him and His words in us that we can ask for any flaky thing we desire and it will be ours. When we abide in the Lord and His Words abide in us there will be a transformation of our desires to where they conform with His desires, and when that takes place our prayers become effective, for they are in line with His will and will be prayed genuinely and fervently. But the point is that as we are genuinely seeking first the kingdom of God—abiding in and delighting ourselves in our Lord—He will give us newly inspired desires that are in line with His will for our lives. Therefore, we can trust those desires as being from Him and follow them as being God’s direction. SAFE OR OUT! Finally, let’s move on to one final manifestation of the inward witness—Peace: Colossians 3:15 says, “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts…” It says in the Amplified Bible— “And let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as an umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state] …” As evidenced by the Amplified Bible’s translation, the word “rule” that Paul used here literally describes a referee or umpire that is officiating something. Paul was saying that we are to let the fruit of peace be the umpire of our hearts, which means that it should call the shots in all of the decisions of our life. In other words, if there is not any peace in a decision we are going to make, then God is not in it. The Holy Spirit will let us know whether it is “safe” to proceed, or you are “out” of God’s will. Someone might ask, “What does peace feel like?” I would say it makes you feel “at ease” on the inside. When you are in peace about something, you will know it! There will be an absence of confusion and frustration and you will just be at peace about a decision. Along these lines, keep strife and confusion out of your house at all costs. These can keep you from hearing clearly from God. When the Spirit of Peace has left, and the devil's confusion has entered, all manner of evil will come with it. In fact, I would go as far as saying that all of the fruit of the Spirit are indicators of our spirit and the Holy Spirit bearing witness together on something. For example, not only will peace be calling the shots, but we will have joy (i.e. an excitement on the inside). Do you remember when Mary came to visit her sister, Elizabeth? And her baby, John the Baptist, leaped on the inside of her. That’s kind of what it feels like: you feel like leaping on the inside. Also, love is in an indicator that you are supposed to do a certain thing. Like Jesus was constantly moved with compassion, the love of Christ compels us to do certain things. So, follow after love, and it will be hard to miss it. All of these things—that knowing, those godly desires, and the fruit of the Spirit—are good indicators that the Spirit of God is directing us. You never know what God’s people might do, but we always know what God will do - it’s written in the Word, and His Spirit bears witness to it. So, again, believe God’s Word which says you are led by the Spirit and pursue that good relationship of God. Then you can trust that as you are moving forward, doing what He has already told us to do in His Word, that He will guide you in every decision you make, and you will stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Amen! INTRODUCTION
Now as we have most recently been covering the various types of the Holy Spirit that are used throughout the Scriptures, I came across another type of Him that “led” me to change gears and have us camp on another important aspect of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So, allow me to “dovetail” (pun intended) our most recent series with a new and very practical one on the Holy Spirit—The Leading of the Holy Spirit. You know, in my opinion, being led by the Holy Spirit is one of the most important truths we can ever learn. Yes, it is an extremely practical and absolutely essential lesson that every believer should have a working knowledge of in their life. The reason is because the Holy Spirit lives in us to (among other things) lead and guide us into all truth—and this includes our daily walk. He will guide us into where to go, when to go there, etc. and I am persuaded that if we will learn to discern how He leads us, we will always be led into triumph. Far too many Christians walk like the world walks—and as a result are blindly groping around, trying to figure things out. But for a Spirit-filled believer, we don’t have to lean to our own understanding. We can trust in the Holy Spirit to direct our paths, hallelujah! So, today, we will begin studying the leading of the Holy Spirit by looking at another type of the Holy Spirit that is less known in the Scriptures—the Cloud. You see, a Cloud was used a couple of times in the Old Testament to describe the manifest presence of God. First of all, we see a cloud covering the tent of meeting and the glory of God filling the Tabernacle (see Exodus 40:34-35), and then later in Second Chronicles chapter 5, we see how Solomon’s temple was filled with a cloud after the sacrifices had been offered and the people worshipped God (see Second Chronicles 5:14). Many in the church today read these accounts and say, “Wow! I sure would like to experience that today!” Do you know what I would like? I desire for the church to know that this is what every born-again, Spirit-filled believer has already experienced today. You see, we the church, are the Temple of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we stay filled with the cloud of God’s glory in our New and Better Covenant. Amen? So, the good news that makes the Gospel even “gooder” is that the glory dwells in us. It is not like it was first with the Tabernacle and then with the Temple, where the cloud of glory filled it once in a blue moon. No, the cloud of glory abides in us forever! Amen! Now in Number 9:15-18, we see this when it says, “Now on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, the tent of the Testimony; from evening until morning it was above the tabernacle like the appearance of fire. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.” First of all, notice how on the day that the tabernacle was raised up, that the cloud covered it. One could read this as to say, that after Jesus—the One who came and tabernacled among us (see John 1:14)—was raised up from the dead, the Holy Spirit was now made available to all who would be born again and become the Lord’s Tabernacles. But this can also show us the permanence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. As Jesus said, He will abide with us forever! We see this in this passage—because verse 16 says, “So it was always…” So, no longer should we be praying “Take not your Holy Spirit away from me!” as David did. No, if He is there, He will remain there! As it is always! Glory to God! However, we are then told that— “Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, after that the children of Israel would journey; and in the place where the cloud settled, there the children of Israel would pitch their tents. At the command of the Lord the children of Israel would journey, and at the command of the Lord they would camp; as long as the cloud stayed above the tabernacle they remained encamped.” So, while the cloud remained present, sometimes it moved. And when it moved, the children of Israel moved. In other words, the children of Israel—a type of God’s people today—were led by the cloud, following it wherever it went. Therefore, since the Holy Spirit is the cloud to us today, we must learn to follow His lead—going where He tells us to go and staying where He tells us to stay. Now before we go any further talking about following the cloud, it is important to make a point here: Even though the children of Israel were being led by the cloud, this did not mean that they did not need “Moses.” No, Moses was an extremely important part of Israel’s direction and guidance in the wilderness. In fact, the vast majority of their generation did not enter into the promised land because of their lack of willingness to hear their leader, Moses. We have no record that they rebelled against following the cloud, but we certainly do see them rejecting the Word God delivered to them through His servant. So, who or what is Moses a type of? Many see Moses as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ—which certainly fits in many ways—but I also see Moses as a type of the Word of God (and, of course, Jesus is the Word. So there is no difference.). You see, Moses was the one who received the Words of their God and delivered them to the children of Israel. He was also the one who delivered to them God’s law—His commandments, statutes, precepts, etc. And, of course, we know that Moses wrote significantly more of the Bible than any other person did (The apostle Paul writing more books of the Bible, but much less words & verses). Therefore, I believe it is true to say Moses was a type of God’s Word here. So, here is my point: Just as the cloud gave Israel direction of where to go and when to go there, they also needed God’s mouthpiece to keep them within the parameters of God’s will for their lives. And the fact is, because they had such a hard time receiving God’s directions through Moses, they were unable to possess their Promised Land. This teaches me that while the Holy Spirit dwells within us to lead and guide us, we do not need to make the mistake of putting Moses outside of your proverbial camp and only being “Spirit-led.” Why? Because the Spirit of God never will operate contrary to the Word of God. They always agree! Amen? THE MORE SURE WORD OF PROPHECY Let’s look over at Second Peter 1:16-21 and take a look at the Apostle Peter’s views on this matter: In verses 16-18 the apostle Peter recounted to his readers a very spectacular experience he had during Jesus’ earthly ministry. It was of his experience at what we call “The Mount of Transfiguration.” When Jesus spoke with Moses and Elijah, His face shown like the sun, and His garments became white as the light (Matthew chapter 17). This was an incredible experience for Peter, I’m sure—to see Jesus displayed in all of His glory! This had to be enough to convince him of the deity of this Man that he had committed his life to follow, right? On top of that, not only did Peter say that he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ majesty (Second Peter 1:16), but he also said that he heard the audible voice of God saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased. Hear Him” (vs. 17&18). Nothing could be more convincing than this, right? I mean, to see what he saw and then to hear what he heard. Surely, Peter had to be sure that this was the Son of God now, right? Many think this: There are many who travel in our circles who would take a miraculous event that they saw with their eyes like this (i.e. a vision or dream) as automatically “thus saith the Lord.” Others would, for certain, take something they heard with their ears like an audible voice being from God. But Peter did not say that these two forms of God’s communication were a sure thing. Notice what he goes on to say in verse 19 is a more sure form of communication from God: He said that we have a more sure word of prophecy! Now we know that this “more sure word of prophecy” is a reference to God’s Word because verse 20 goes on to say, “knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation…” Therefore, the Apostle Peter is referring to what is written in the Holy Scriptures as this more sure word of prophecy. Well, why does he refer to it as the “word of prophecy”? It is because, as other translations put it, he is referring to the prophecies made concerning Jesus in the Old Testament Scriptures. This is why the apostle Peter goes on to say what he does— “which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” But back to our example—we know that the children of Israel did not “heed” Moses, did they? No, they did not have ears to hear his words and commandments. Which again was the reason they could not enter into the Promised Land. So, the apostle Peter was saying that as we take “heed” to the truth, this will lead to the day dawning and the morning star rising in our hearts. And the Book of Revelation reveals Jesus as the Bright and Morning Star, right? Hallelujah, our revelation of Jesus can grow to the point where we see our Bright and Morning Star brighter than we ever had before! So, there are two very important lessons to learn from this:
This is such a huge point, my friends! If Peter said that his experience with the Lord Jesus Himself was subordinate to what is written in the Holy Scriptures, and if Peter said that the prophecies recorded in the Word of God are more of a sure thing than this particular experience, then we had better not let any experience we ever have or any “prophecy” we might receive be more convincing to us than what is written in God’s Word. MANY VOICES = ONE AUTHORITY You see, the danger is that there are many voices in the world and it would be easy to have one of these spectacular experiences and it not be God at all. Not everything that is spiritual is of God. There have been many false religions begun through supernatural experiences that individuals claim to have had. Now I do not doubt that some of these individuals have indeed had the spectacular experiences that they say that they have had. What I do doubt, however, is that these experiences were actually God-inspired. We need to understand that Satan also lives in the spiritual realm and can perform many of these supernatural things too. Yes, he can speak to you as well. We know that in the last days that his antichrist and false prophet will perform many lying signs and wonders that will deceive many. You see, Satan loves to counterfeit the things of God. As Paul said in Second Corinthians 11:14, he likes to masquerade as an angel of light and lead well-meaning people (even God’s children) into error through this deception. This is why we need to always make sure what we are hearing or seeing is substantiated by the Scriptures. If our experiences are not backed up by the Bible, then we better think twice about embracing them as being from God—even if they seem to be blessing people. For example, say I was sitting in my room and all of the sudden it was filled with a “cloud” of glory and then three glorious beings entered my room claiming to be the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then they told me that they had some new revelation to share with me and that I had been chosen to carry this new teaching to the world. My first question would be— “Where is this revelation found in the Bible because I need at least two or three verses to let this word be established?” Then, if they were to say to me, “Son, this is a new revelation just for you!” My reaction then would be— “Well, this visit has not been as nice as I hoped it would; I will have to ask you to leave.” You see, God has given us His Word so that we will not be deceived like this. Satan most certainly can counterfeit the things of God. Therefore, it would behoove us to know the truth so that we are not swayed by just any spectacular experience. THE SPIRIT AND THE WORD AGREE Now I am certainly not trying to downplay the importance of hearing from God in other spiritual ways. His supernatural methods of leading and guiding us still are extremely relevant and necessary today, but my point is that we are never to just blindly follow a spectacular experience just because it was supernatural. No, we should always measure every experience we have by the Word because the Spirit of God will never contradict the Word of God. But again, this does not mean that being led by the Spirit is less important. Both the Word of God and the Holy Spirit are extremely important and work together to lead us into all truth. Let me share with you an experience I once heard a lady had: There was a Christian lady who the Lord gave a dream to. In this dream she found herself on a beach, and on this beach, there were landmines buried all across it. As she stood there pondering how she was going to cross over this beach, the Lord spoke to her saying, “Would you rather I speak to you telling you where to take each step or would you rather I give you a map that tells you where every landmine is located?” The point the Lord was making through this dream was that she did not have to choose between those two options because God has already given them both to us. You see, we have the Holy Spirit living within us—the voice of God—to lead us and guide us, but we also have the “map”—God’s Holy Word—that spells out to us the direction we are to take. We have the map (i.e. the Word) and we have the One who drew the map to interpret it for us (i.e. the Spirit). This, my friends, is a fail proof method! There is no excuse for us not always being led out of harm’s way and always into triumph! Therefore, just as the cloud that led the children of Israel by day and Moses who communicated God’s Word to them operated in conjunction with one another, the ministry of the Holy Spirit compliments the Word of God in our lives. One is not more important than the other. Rather, they both work hand in hand to lead us on the path of life that shines brighter and brighter unto the perfect day (Proverbs 4:18)! The Spirit and the Word agree and will never contradict each other. So, in regards to hearing from God and being led by the Holy Spirit, what is the primary way God speaks to us under this new and better covenant? Certainly, He communicates to us through different avenues, but I am convinced that the most regular and clear way that He speaks to us is through the Bible. In fact, I believe that both of these two things help us to discern the direction given to us by the other. In other words, just as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what God’s Word is saying, I personally believe that God’s Word is how we can more accurately discern the leading of the Holy Spirit on the inside of us. Let me explain: LIVING AND POWERFUL Hebrews 4:12 reads— “For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” Now it’s important to note that the Greek word used for “Word of God” here is the word logos. This word logos is a reference to the truth contained in God’s written word. It describes a transmission of thought, a statement, or a word of explanation just as God’s Written Word is a compilation of God’s thoughts in written form. And notice the first two words that the writer of Hebrews uses to describe the “Logos of God”—He says it is living and powerful. We must always remember that God’s Written Word is not just any book; it is a living and energetic book. Some of our translations say “quick” here but this is just an old English translation that describes something living. For instance, it was also used in Romans 4:17 when the Apostle Paul described God as the One who “quickens the dead.” So, this obviously describes giving life to the dead, and in this case being the deadness of Sarah’s womb. So, His Word is living and it is life-giving. It is not just any old book. This Book is alive and, therefore, is able to give life! The moment one begins reading the Bible through spiritually dead eyes, they will never fully realize the life found in God’s Word. This is simply reading the “letter” and the Apostle Paul said that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit will quicken the Word of God to us to where it’s not boring or hard to understand. He will quicken our senses to glean the life of God’s Word and resurrect the words off of the page and into our hearts! Hallelujah! I have often heard from Christians how they have a hard time reading the Bible because they do not understand it. If that is one’s experience, then they are doing it all wrong. When we get full of the Holy Spirit and begin reading it through His lens, then this Book will become alive to us! Amen! The second word Hebrews 4:12 used to describe the Word of God is “powerful.” This word is also a mistranslation. It comes from the Greek word energeo and is where we get our words “energy” or “energetic” from. So, this describes God’s Word as working, active, and effective—the opposite of being idle, inactive, and ineffective. Therefore, God’s Word has the ability to work its results in your life as you take heed to it. First Thessalonians 2:13 says, “For this reason we also thank God without ceasing, because when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you welcomed it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which also effectively works in you who believe.” The Amplified Bible adds the following at the end of the verse— "[exercising its superhuman power in those who adhere to and trust in and rely on it].” So, with these two words, we see God’s Word as a living, breathing organism! (For doesn’t the Bible speak of itself as being God breathed?) It is actually alive and able to give life to those who let it enter their heart. It is full of energy—always active and working—and able to provide energy to those who have ears to hear. THE DIAMOND & THE PRISM You see, when we consider these two descriptions of God’s Word, one mistake we need to avoid making when reading it, is reading it like it is just any other book. It is easy to slip into this because of the weakness of our flesh, but the Bible is not meant to be read like we would, say, a history book. The Bible is more than just a compilation of facts and historical information. The Word of God is God-breathed! It is living and powerful! It is a Living Book, containing the power of Almighty God—power to transform you and the things which concern you. Therefore, we should not study it like it is a textbook. We should read it in faith—believing that it is God’s personal letter to us and that its Words are more than just letters on pages. I like to compare the Word of God to a diamond: If you look at a diamond where there is little light, it can look just like any other rock—dead and uninteresting. But if you put that same diamond where there is a bright light, it will refract that light into many different, beautiful colors—like snow crystals appear on a clear and sunny day. This is exactly what reading the Bible is like. If the Word of God is looked upon with no “light” (i.e. no faith and no Holy Spirit), its beauty will not be fully realized. But if “light” is present when it is read, nothing could appear more precious and valuable. On top of that, when the Bible is read with no light and like just any other book, each Scripture will be seen as having only one meaning—which would be the obvious interpretation based on the context. While considering the context that each verse was written in is a good and safe way to build our core-beliefs, we would also do good to read these same verses with an open heart, where the Holy Spirit can communicate directly to us on a personal level. You see, every Scripture in the Bible is also like a prism: The angle at which the light hits a prism will determine the color that the prism will refract. Likewise, every verse of the Bible is capable of refracting a different meaning and personal application depending on the angle the Holy Spirit shines His light on it. I could give you example after example of this from my own life; but I can assure you that there is nothing like having God speak directly to you, like how Moses spoke to the children of Israel. This is what makes the Bible alive and different from any other book. The Word contains all the infinite and inexhaustible treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). He, the Word, is the manifold (i.e. many faceted) wisdom of God, containing many shades, tints, hues, and colorful expressions. And when we see the Word of God like this, it becomes the most beautiful thing we ever laid our eyes on! Hallelujah! SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD Now notice how he goes on to describe the Word of God by the reference of it being “sharper than any two-edged sword.” This speaks of the ability of God’s Word to pierce and cut through anything! Glory! In fact, the Word of God being likened to a sword is referred to multiple times in the Word of God: The Book of Revelation speaks of Jesus having a sharp two-edged sword coming out of His mouth (Revelation 1:16 & 19:15). Also, the Apostle Paul refers to this self-same sword in Ephesians 6:17 when referring to what he called “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” But I want you to notice what this sharp two-edged sword does according to Hebrews 4:12. “…piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” You see, the whole point of this passage is to show us how God’s Word has the power to pierce or divide between something, and what is this? Soul and spirit! Friends, this is so huge! How many of you have ever said either— “I am not sure if what I am hearing is God or if it’s just me!” or “I am confused as to whether this is God leading me to do this or if it is just my own desires.”??? If we were all honest, we’ve all had these thoughts. Well, allow me to show you how to better know the answer to this: You know, one of the hardest things to find a distinction between in all of the Word of God is the soul and the spirit. In fact, some of the authors of Scripture use these two terms synonymously—giving the impression that they are one and the same. But this is not true—for First Thessalonians 5:23 reveals to us that there is a difference between the spirit of man and the soul of man. The spirit is the immaterial and eternal part of man. It is the part of us that is born again and has the life of God abiding within it. It is the part that was made a new creation—completely righteous and holy. It is the part that produces the fruit of the spirit—love, joy, peace, etc. The soul is also an immaterial part of us—but it includes our mind, will, emotions, intellect and personality. You see, the difference between the soul and spirit is further illustrated by the writer of Hebrews by going on to describe the bone joint and the bone marrow. The marrow is contained within the bone—being the core of the bone itself. It is where blood cells are formed. This is an illustration of our spirit—our inner most core of our being and it is the part of us that the blood of Jesus has touched. Bone joints are what “join” the bones together. Likewise, the soul is what connects the spirit and the body. The Bible speaks of how we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. Other Scriptures reveal to us how the soul is part of us that causes our body to experience what has already transpired in our spirit. Now the regenerated spirit of man is where the Mind of Christ abides (i.e. the Holy Spirit). In other words, our born-again spirit is the part of us that knows all things. The soul, on the other hand, is just in the process of knowing all things. It is not linked up to God yet and is in the ever-going process of being renewed. And, last but not least, Hebrews 4:12 says that the Word of God is the “discerner” or “capable of judging between” the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now we know that the heart is deceitfully wicked above all things. It can deceive one very easily. BUT (I said BUT)… But the Word of God is capable of judging between the “thoughts” of the heart and the “intentions” of the heart. The “thoughts of the heart” is a reference to the soul where our mind is located. The “intentions of our heart” is a reference to the spirit of man. How do I know this? Do you remember where Jesus said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak”? The Apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians chapter 9 that we are to give as we purpose in our heart. Here, he is referencing spirit-inspired giving. Romans chapter 7 says a lot about the spirit of man desiring, willing, and wanting to follow after God’s law. So, the spirit has good intentions. It is willing and desirous to follow God’s will. It purposes to do the right thing. In short, being Spirit-led is intentional, not emotional. It is acting on what you believe. It is hiding His Word in your heart and listening to it when it rises up in you. It's being faithful to the Word you know is true when the going gets tough. Many of us are so used to being led by our emotions that we are going to need to renew our minds and become more intentional and deliberate in our decision-making process. Remember that Jesus “was perfected through the things He suffered.” (See Hebrews 2:10) We need to be ready to do the same. So, my point is that the problem most of us have is distinguishing between what is of the spirit and what is of the soul when it comes to God’s direction. This is where the Word of God comes in! It is the thing that helps divide between those thoughts of “Was that just me and my emotions or was that a Spirit-inspired idea?” In other words, the Word of God is able to discern between what is just our own thoughts and what is a spirit-inspired intention. Yes, it is God’s Word that is capable of discerning or dividing between God’s Words. What I mean by that is, when we put God’s Word at a place of importance in our heart, it will help us distinguish between when what we are hearing on the inside is God’s voice or another voice. Did David not say in Psalm 119:11—“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You”? Well, I want to challenge you to consider this verse in this light we are talking about. The word “sin” literally means to “miss the mark”, right? So what King David was saying was that when we hide God’s Word in our hearts, we can keep ourselves from missing it! You see, God’s Word abiding in our hearts gives the Holy Spirit so much more to work with! As we hide His Word in our hearts through reading, studying, and meditating it, we are loading our heart with various truths to remind us of when we need direction and guidance from Him. Now it is true that to know just a little bit of Scripture can actually be harmful in that the devil is a master at using the Bible to condemn and deceive God’s children. He tried to do this to Jesus in the wilderness when he quoted a passage from the 91st Psalm in an attempt to deceive Jesus. So, yes, it is of the utmost importance to have an honest and balanced understanding of God’s Word to keep one from being deceived by a Scripture that is taken out of context. But the bottom line is, hearing God speak to you His Word is the safest way of hearing from Him. Why? Because He will never conflict with His Word. He has exalted His Word even above His name and He changes not. So, all Scripture—which is given by inspiration of God—is profitable for teaching, reproving, correcting, and instructing us. God’s Word—the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Moses is a type of, says to you and I today, “Follow Me!” This is the first step into a Spirit-led life where that Holy Spirit cloud leads us into our Promised Land. Amen, and Hallelujah! |
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