I’m thankful that He uses us even when we don’t have it all figured out… If that were so only Jesus Himself would be allowed to be used of the Father…
• He’s still working on me… I know I don’t have it all figured out… and sometimes I miss it…
• Yet He still wants to speak through my life… and, if you’re anything like me, however you’ve missed it, He wants to speak through your life…
Sometimes the spiritual gifts can seem spooky or a little out there…
• The Main idea of the gifts of the Spirit – God wants to talk to us… God wants to use us… And these are some of the means in which He wants to do this… are we open to be used by Him…
One author put it like this:
• The gifts are for the glorification of God
• The reaching of the lost
• The disciplining of the found
• and The serving of human needs
This will be a fly over Birds eye view of these gifts…
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led.
“brothers…” I love that he uses that term… he’s not talking down to them…
• this is Paul coming alongside them, he has a kinship with them and doesn’t want them to live in ignorance… this correction is in love and mercy…
The Corinthians had a pagan past, and how they worshiped was that they would lose control of themselves… They would basically get high and see crazy things…
• It was not God’s desire that they would bring this into their Christian worship…
• Paul’s urging was not to lose control and clam it was the Spirit of God… this has been a plague in “Pentecostal” circles…
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
V4-6 Facebook Click bait… top 10 lists… God inspires this list of gifts and He begins in speaking of their equality to one another…
• It’s funny how unity is so closely connected to the gifts of the Spirit… it’s all serving the Church, all gifts have their time and place and are all important…
• To the point that a lot of these gifts will operate in combination with each other…
Paul goes on to give the baseline reason the gifts are given… “common good” not a personal hobby horses…
• we must be thoughtful of others as we exercise the gifts, we have to be in control of ourselves…
8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom,
Message of Wisdom (The God given gift in which one can speak a word of wisdom at a critical point in someone’s life)
• Some have this character trait in their lives… but this is also a special gift from God…
• Have you ever had wise words come out of your month and as you were speaking you knew it wasn’t from you…
Just because God may use us in this gift of wisdom doesn’t mean we’re necessarily wiser than others…
• This gift goes beyond both human wisdom and preparation…
• The Word gives us timeless truth, the Spirit gives us timely truth…
• This is not limited to church “ministries”…
and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit,
Message of Knowledge (The God given gift to speak a word of Divine knowledge from Divine revelation)
• This is not book learning… “flash of insight” from God…
• The prophet Nathan and David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12)…
9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
Faith (The God given gift of a special operation of faith that enables an extra demonstration of God’s power, sometimes this faith can empower other individuals or groups to grow in their faith as well… and accomplish great things in Christ)
• This is not referring to saving faith, but miraculous faith…
• We are all called to have faith… but those with this gift… They get the vision of God for a situation and are wild enough to believe God will do what He says He will do…
• this gift of faith is not just about immediate results, but perseverance when God’s work doesn’t function like a microwave…
to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit,
Gifts of Healing (The God given gift to pray for someone and they become healed of whatever is afflicting them)
• Healing is prayed for in many different ways… laying on of hands, authoritative prayers and words, anointing oil…
• physical, emotional, spiritual, quickly and slowly… Many people have been healed at this altar or have come by the church or called, and God has healed…
• Healing isn’t about how loud you pray… but you can get excited… It’s all meant for His glory, and as an expression of God’s love… not for or from the advancement of man…
10 to another the working of miracles,
Miracles (The God given gift to see God move in unusual ways.)
• Red Sea… The gift of miracles vindicates the name of God… God’s laws are greater than the laws of nature… “Super”natural…
• people in desperate situations… not a nice circus act… Jesus and the Pharisees…
to another prophecy,
Prophecy (the God given ability to apply God’s word to a particular situation, or to fortell the future…)
• Prophecy is basically to see the world and people through God’s eye’s… We can make the idea of prophecy spooky…
Old Testament prophets would speak many times in these terms…
• “the situation is this… if you don’t do this then that (Bad) will happen… but if you do this then this (Good) will happen…”
• The desire was always to redeem the nation… not to condemn or simply be right… the heart of prophecy is redemption…
Prophecy is meant to build up, encourage, and console the believer… It’s at the heart of what a sermon is, not that information would be exchanged but that lives would be changed by God’s word…
• and sermons are also meant to convict the heart of the unbeliever to the point of repentance…
to another the ability to distinguish between spirits,
Distinguishing of Spirits (The God given gift to know if something is from God or not)
• This is given that we would know if a person or message is from God… the enemy is the father of lies…
• the emphasis is protecting us from the assault of Satan… The enemy and the flesh can us good people to do bad things…
to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.
Speaking in Tongues and Interpretation
• Tongues – A personal prayer language to build us up in the Lord… Or the God given ability to give a message from God in an unknown language in public worship… they must speak at an appropriate time in an appropriate setting…
• Interpretation of Tongues – this refers to the scripturally mandated interpretation of the utterance of tongues in a public setting to a known language… it’s not necessarily a literal translation…
This is such a vital and yet easily abused gift of the Spirit that Paul dedicated a whole chapter to the subject… (We will cover this next week…)
11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
It’s the same Spirit of God moving in different ways, and according to His desires… He gives us what we need when we need it…
• These gifts are not only meant for Sunday mornings… Spiritual gifts are meant to be lived out in everyday life…
Romans 12:6-8
6 Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith;
Prophecy was covered above…
7 if service, in our serving;
Service (the God given ability to see and meet practical needs)
• Foot washing… Jesus… mowing a lawn…
1 Peter 4:11
11 …whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
• Don’t ever feel like service is a small thing… it’s not for the untalented… it’s vital…
the one who teaches, in his teaching;
Teaching (the God given ability to communicate His truths (the word) orderly and correctly)
• Without these solid foundations we’re easily swayed by the more charismatic influences in life…
• teaching has been far too neglected in Pentecostal circles… and we’ve paid a heavy price for this…
Teachers your gifts are vital to the integrity of the church…
• Don’t ever feel like you’re just filling time… your ministry is preparing lives for powerful deep growth… Be a part of Bible Fellowships & The Coffee House Ministry…
8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation;
Encouragement (the God given ability to encourage and inspire people in tough situations)
• These are the good huggers… those that listen… and have timely words… Barnabas…
Sometimes we need to know, hear, and feel in the midst of our dark situations…
• that God’s still with us, and we have nothing to fear… encouragement is vital to the work of the church…
the one who contributes, in generosity;
Giving (the God given ability to see and willingly meet needs)
• All are to give… but those with these gifts are blessed with the time, ability and or resources to give and enjoy doing it…
• This is vital within the church…
the one who leads, with zeal;
Leadership (the God given ability to find a vision and lead others to accomplish it)
• Some people are born leaders (good/bad)… Everything raises and falls on leadership… “with zeal” no one will be more committed than the leader…
• If you have received this gift of leadership, lead rightly and with zeal… your ministry is necessary for this church to be everything God’s called us to be… We need leaders…
the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
Mercy (the God given ability to reach out and administer the healing power of God’s love)
• Sometimes words will not due…
• Sometimes instruction is not what the moment calls for…
• Sometimes people just need to feel and see the mercy of God in the eyes of the person sitting across the table from them…
• they’ve seen too much judgement or knowing glance…
Mercy is not about what people deserve, it’s about what they don’t deserve…
• If you have this gift in operation in your life, don’t begrudgingly give, but give “Mercy with cheerfulness…”
1 Peter 4:8-10
8 Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9 Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
Hospitality
The context here is to use our spiritual gifts…
So what is hospitality?
• Reaching out to others in powerfully friendly ways…
• Greek: generous to guests…
There are those people that make everyplace feel like home… This is a powerful gift and ministry!
• In this very isolated and lonely world, this gift can powerfully draw people to Christ…
• This gift is no small thing… many times it’s the very way people come to know they are loved by God…
1 Corinthians 13:1-3
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Voluntary Poverty (The God given ability to empty oneself of earthly possessions that others would be cared for)
• This is the person that gives you the literal shirt off their back, and have no undershirt… this is a gift from God… this is laying up treasure in Heaven…
• Not everyone can give like this… no need for senseless guilt… that’s why it’s a special gift of the Spirit, but to those that can give like this God will richly reward them…
1 Corinthians 13:3
3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Martyrdom (This is giving one’s life up for Christ as a testimony for Jesus…)
• 11 of the 12 Apostles died in this fashion… a great testimony of the authority of the gospel… Nixon (Coalson); when the pressure was on they broke, no one was going to die for a lie…
• On the other end just because someone is willing to die for a cause doesn’t make it true… Jihad… It’s the first hand witness of the Apostles that makes the difference…
1 Corinthians 7:5-9, 32-40 / Principles for Marriage
5 Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
6 Now as a concession, not a command, I say this. 7 I wish that all were as I myself am. But each has his own gift from God, one of one kind and one of another.
8 To the unmarried and the widows I say that it is good for them to remain single, as I am. 9 But if they cannot exercise self-control, they should marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.
32 I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord. 33 But the married man is anxious about worldly things, how to please his wife, 34 and his interests are divided. And the unmarried or betrothed woman is anxious about the things of the Lord, how to be holy in body and spirit. But the married woman is anxious about worldly things, how to please her husband. 35 I say this for your own benefit, not to lay any restraint upon you, but to promote good order and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.
36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed, if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry—it is no sin. 37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well. 38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.
39 A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. 40 Yet in my judgment she is happier if she remains as she is. And I think that I too have the Spirit of God.
Celibacy (Singleness) (Celibacy is the gift to remain single and not to be overcome by sexual temptation…)
• Some would look at this as a curse… some in the midst of it feel like it is a curse…
• Paul said if possible it’s better to remain unmarried, to dedicate all our attention to Christ and ministry…
• It’s not saying in order to have this gift that there is not desire(v37), only that the Holy Spirit has given us the self-control (in the Spirit) that they remain pure…
• Now some people with this gift are just not born with a strong sex drive, this is not a strange or gay issue… they are called to be single and set aside to focus in an exclusive nature on the cause of Christ, without distraction…
• Some are not called to an entire life of singleness, but a period in their lives, so how are we to live in this season matters… lives of self-control… This is a complicated gift, and will be covered more at the Coffee House Small Group…
1 Corinthians 12:27-28
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles,
Apostles
These were individuals that were immediately sent by Christ Himself, and they had their commission and doctrine directly from him…
• These were the original 12 Apostles plus… and they were responsible for the practical and theological foundations of the church… They would be the first to name the name of Christ where He wasn’t known…
This gift is both finished and incomplete…
• The modern gift doesn’t carry the same authority as the original apostles (writing scripture, etc…everything stopped there) …
• anything that does not align with their original teaching is false (maybe well intentioned, but still untrue… sanding the edges of the “old rugged cross”)…
• but this gift currently is applied to those missionaries that go to places where the name and teachings of Christ have never been uttered…
So this is the current apostolic gift… to name Christ where He’s never been named before… unreached people groups…
second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping,
Prophets, Teachers, Miracles, Gifts of Healing (Covered above)
Helps (Is the God given ability to invest in the ministry of others enabling them a greater effectiveness in their own ministries…)
• It’s someone who is called to come along side and add to ministry… “stretcher bearers” … helping others get to Jesus; helping others get Jesus to others…
• This is vital in the local church… people get burned out without this ministry… you have no idea what a blessing it is the be able to have someone come alongside and help… not only to me but others…
administrating,
Administration/ Governments (The God given gift to communicate vision and bring people together to accomplish the vision…)
There is a difference between this and “leadership,” it is expression… A leader sets the big picture, the administrator is the details person…
• Not all leaders are administrators, not all administrators are leaders…
• If you are that details, execution person… this is a gift and use it for His glory… both the big picture people and the detail people are needed for the work of God’s kingdom…
Ephesians 4:11-(11-12)-16
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…
(Apostles, Prophets Covered)
Evangelists (This is the God given gift where people share the truth and love of God in such a way that people more readily give their hearts to Christ…)
• we’re all called to witness, but some just have a special gift in this area…
• What an evangelist is not is someone who only ministers to believers (revivalist)
If this is a gift within you don’t hide it… the world needs to hear the good news and from you…
Pastors/ Shephard (This is a God given gift to care for the spiritual welfare of the children of God… Shephard is the literal translation…)
• This gift of pastoring practices authority over other gifts… to Shephard is to lead and protect, to guide, and to correct… (Ps 23)…
• To pastor is to be accountable for the welfare of the church body… I will one day stand before God and have to answer for how I’ve lead you guys… that accountability requires the authority to govern and lead the body…
• I’m not saying these things because I’m power hungry, but because it’s biblical and I desire to protect you… when you hurt I hurt… I only desire the best, and the rejection of this calling by some breaks my heart, not for pride… but because of love…
If this is a calling in your life I want to nourish it… personally…
• as well here is some good reading: 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus… If you believe God maybe calling you into one of these ministries devote yourself to these books of the bible…
One word of caution before we close:
Possessing a gift doesn’t mean God has approved of all that person does or teaches.
• Spiritual gifts must not be confused with the fruit of the Spirit…
• There have been sometimes when God has used me, and even as I was being used I felt the conviction that there were things in my own life that need to be corrected… I knew that everything in my life wasn’t prefect even as I was ministering to someone else…
• and I believe those moments are an expression of the grace and mercy of God…
• Grace and mercy for the one receiving the ministry because God sees their need and uses even unfit vessels to deliver His love because He loves them so much… and grace and mercy for us that He doesn’t wait for our full sanctification to minister His love through our lives…
That is not a get out of jail free card… if we don’t turn in repentance there will be a price to pay… remember Samson… eventually the Spirit of God left him and he didn’t even feel it…
• Let us be grateful for His grace and mercy, but let us not take it as license… and repent and live as He’s called us to live…
God has a calling and gifts for everyone, God wants the fruit of the Spirit to be thriving in our lives, God want’s the person of the Holy Spirit actively working within us…
1 Corinthians 12:31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
• God is calling us to more; will we choose to live in His fullness?
• It’s not enough to know the gifts of the Spirit exist and have a good theological frame work, we must live in and experience these gifts in our lives in order to live in the fullness that God desires… He doesn’t just what you to know it, but to live it…
All believers have gifts and the gifts of His choosing…
• We are all priests in God’s kingdom… God wants to use more than just pastors…
• the gifts of the Spirit fulfill the varied roles that the priests serve, and are meant for all believers… If you don’t function in all the gifts fear not…
No one but Jesus had all the gifts functioning in their life, on the other hand, all of us should have some of the gifts functioning in our lives…
The gifts are meant to serve others…
• They don’t exist to puff up the pride of humanity…
• They don’t exist for vain self-promotion…
• The Main idea of the gifts of the Spirit – God wants to talk to us… God wants to use us… And these are some of the means in which He wants to do this… are we open to be used by Him…
One author put it like this:
• The gifts are for the glorification of God
• The reaching of the lost
• The disciplining of the found
• and The serving of human needs
I invite everyone reading this to receive the first gift God wants to give you! He bought it with His own life on the cross… before He gives you all these other gifts He simply want you to know Him… If you would like to learn more about knowing Jesus please check out this video!
For believers is this your prayer; God pour into me the gifts of the Spirit that you’re calling me to, or I believe I have a calling on my life, or a gift, God help me to embrace it, or I’ve never been baptized in the Holy Spirit and I need Him… Make these things your prayer and see what God would do in your life. If you would like to talk please call Pastor.