1
Corinthians 12:1-13
Now, brothers, concerning Spiritual
gifts, I don’t want you ignorant. Once,
being Gentiles, you were once led astray by dumb idols.
Therefore, I want you to understand
that no man calls Jesus accursed when speaking by the Spirit and yet no man can
call Jesus Lord except by the Holy Ghost.
Now there are different gifts, but it
is by the same Spirit. And even though
they are for different services, they come by the same Lord. They operate differently, but it is God who
works through each of them.
The manifestation of the Spirit is
given to every man to profit everyone else.
By the Spirit one is given the word of Wisdom, another the word of knowledge, each by the same
Spirit. Another receives faith by the same Spirit and another gifts of healing. Another receives
the working of miracles and another prophecy. Another receives the discerning of spirits and another different tongues (not acquired naturally), while another the interpretation of tongues.
But all these work by the same
Spirit, as He divides to each man, individually, as He will.
The body is one, but has many
members, but all the members of that body are still one, also as (we are) in Christ.
We are baptized into one body,
whether Jew or Gentile, free or bond and we are all made (created) to drink
into one Spirit.
For years
I’ve had certain concepts about the “Gifts of the Spirit” and, for the most
part, those concepts were good, but incomplete.
Father has opened my heart to a deeper understanding of what the gifts
actually are and how they ‘should’ operate.
Like myself,
I’ve known others who have grabbed hold of certain concepts, when we were young
in the Lord, of what we thought were indeed biblical truths and dug our heels
in when others came in contrary to what we ‘knew’.
Praise the
Lord, for those of you who were introduced to the fuller concepts of the Holy
Ghost from the time you were first saved.
I venture to say you also, most likely, had someone guiding you on
(PTL).
Back in
January 2017, I did a teaching in “Gifts and Anointing” and I thought I had a
pretty good handle on things back them.
Well enough to do a respectable teaching. None of my brothers and sisters challenged me
back then, not that I was wrong with anything was said, it was just incomplete.
Father has
used Kenneth Hagin to open my eyes to a lot of “spiritual things’ recently, so
I thank Father for opening my eyes.
As we see in
1 Corinthians 12:1-13, there are
nine spiritual gifts listed. Now,
understand, there are talents (eg. singing, speaking, writing, leadership and
other skills) which are also gifts from God, but those gifts are given without
repentance. We don’t have to be saved to
have a good singing voice and so forth, but God gives them to us as He wills.
The gifts we’re talking about here, though, are Holy Spirit given and driven. Ergo, the “gifts of the Spirit”. Now understand that any gift God gives, is
given to magnify and glorify His name whether we use it that way nor not
actually becomes our choice.
Mr. Hagin
breaks the nine gifts into three categories: revelation, power gifts (action)
and utterance (speaking). Revelation includes the word of
knowledge, word of wisdom and discerning of spirits. The power
gifts are faith, working of miracles and gifts of healing. And lastly, the gifts of utterance are prophecy, different tongues and
interpretation of tongues.
Paul tells
us to covet the best gifts (1 Corinth.
12:31), that it desire them, for there is a ‘key’ gift in each group. With the group of revelation both the word of
knowledge and discerning of spirits are most dependent upon the word of
wisdom. Wisdom reveals how to use God given knowledge and enables us to
distinguish the spirits.
Faith is primary with the power gifts
because working miracles and gifts of healing are dependent upon our believing
God can and will do what we ask.
Prophecy is prime in utterance because it
edifies or builds up individuals or the church. We can prophesy to ourselves or someone else
and is usually spoken in the language we know so those who hear it are
edified. But when prophecy or anything
is spoken in our heavenly, spiritual language, no one is edified unless there
is someone to interpret the word.
Let’s take a
look at each of the nine gifts and see how God has intended for them to work
for us. Remember, as we go through the
list, the Holy Ghost gives each gift to us individually as He sees fit. Some gifts may work together, but not
necessarily. But the gifts are given so
each of us can help those around us to strengthen and grow in Christ Jesus.
The word of knowledge is basically divine
revelation of information or facts, whether past or present, about someone or
something but it does not predict future events. Divine revelation means we don’t have access
to the knowledge before the Holy Ghost reveals it to us. Jesus uses this with the woman at the well (John 4:5-25). Another example is God sending Ananias to Damascus
so Paul can regain his sight (Acts
9:10-12). Word of knowledge comes in
the Old Testament as we see with Samuel telling Saul where his donkeys were (1 Sam. 9:3-20). The word of knowledge is regularly used for
is to purify, comfort, elate (bring joy), recover, reveal or glorify Jesus.
The word of wisdom reveals what God intends
to do in a given situation and this would be for a present or future event, whether near
or far. The Holy Ghost reveals the deep
things of God (1 Corinth. 2:10). God reveals to Noah the world’s impending
doom (Gen. 6:1-22) and the angel
telling Paul that the ship would be lost but all lives would be spared (Acts 27:20-24) are examples as though
they give facts, they speak to events which hadn’t yet occurred whereas the
word of knowledge speaks to something that has already occurred or is happening
‘now’.
The discerning of spirits is one where
Father showed me I had more to understand.
For openers, I always considered this to be the “gift of
discernment”. Discernment is being able
to make a right decision about something, which road to take, which shirt to
wear, which don’t require heavenly intervention, but wouldn’t preclude it. But Father said to me “Listen up!” The gift is “discerning of spirits”, not just discernment. The discerning of spirits is just that, being
able to see what spirit is involved in a situation. Either of three spirits can be involved: The Holy Spirit, a demonic spirit or our own
human spirit may be getting in the way of what we are experiencing. This gift shows us, by revelation through the
Holy Ghost, which type of spirit is involved and even what specific spirit may
be involved, which just might come in handy when casting out demons. Or whether we should just shut up, sit down
and let the Holy Ghost go to work so we don’t mess things up.
Faith comes
by the hearing of the word (Romans 10:17)
and with this faith we believe God can and will do things, even ‘save’ us. We trust Him to be true to His word. But the “gift
of faith” carries us beyond just belief so we can put that faith into
action. What does James tell us? “Show me your faith without works and I’ll
show you my faith through my works (James
2:18). Doing is more than just
believing. Father endows us with the
power (via the Holy Ghost) to put that faith into action. We don’t ‘just believe’. We put the pedal to the metal and get moving.
If we don’t
have faith, don’t even consider working
miracles. Without faith it is
impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6))
so we surely need a supernatural dose of the Holy Ghost to perform any
miracle. So what is a miracle? Something that cannot be accomplished through
natural sources, whether non-existent or not available. Have you ever prayed that a raging storm
would stop – and shortly after, it did?
Some may argue that you just had good timing, but it is also true that
God performed a miracle by honoring your prayer. The Holy Ghost moved upon the face of the
waters during creation (Gen. 1:2) so
what makes us think He’s still not doing it?
The gift of healing, again, is something
God does outside the ‘natural’ realm.
Where doctors and hospitals are not available or perhaps a cure is yet
non-existent in our world. So the Holy
Ghost needs to step in and perform a work beyond medical science or
availability. This is not ‘just’ the
prayer of faith where we ask God to heal, but where we take action on God’s behalf
by laying on of hands as well as speaking to the situation. We know God’s Spirit inhabits our praises (Psalms 22:3) so we can be confident He
also inhabits our prayerfully, faithful actions. The gift of healing is the Holy Ghost working
through our obedience to accomplish Father’s will.
I like how
Kenneth Hagin explains the gift of
prophecy. He says it is not a
“foretelling” of future events but a “forth-telling”. In other words, it just doesn’t attempt to
predict a future event but speaks, under guidance of the Holy Ghost, what God
intendeds to happen. I say intended
because what would have happened had Paul ignored Agabus’ prophecy that the
owner of the girdle would be bound (Acts
21:10-11)? Who knows? For Paul was determined to go to Jerusalem
and was bound and eventually shipped off to Rome, and remember, Jesus said Paul
had to be a witness in Rome (Acts 23:11). The gift of prophecy is “not” fortune telling
but a speaking by the revelation of the Holy Ghost of things that are designed
to happen. As I suggested, Paul could
have taken another direction after the prophecy to avoid arrest, but who knows,
something might have occurred and he still would have ended up arrested, in
Jerusalem, and eventually off to Rome.
OR, the last few chapters in the book of Acts may have had to be
rewritten.
Now, there
are two realms of prophecy, simple and operating under the gift prophecy. Simple prophecy is a word that edifies,
exhorts or comforts. No ‘earth
shattering event’, just simple encouragement for the church. “God’s got plans for you” or “Blessing are
coming your way”, etc.
The gift of
prophecy will usually work along with one or more of the revelation gifts,
making it compounded with at least one other gift. It will also get into more specifics than
simple “go get ‘em tiger” prophecy. Go
back and read the account of Paul and Agabus.
That was specific and was only information that only the Holy Ghost
could have revealed.
The speaking
in tongues is perhaps one of the more familiar gifts of the spirit. It is surrounded with mystery, controversy it
is the gift most needed for self-edification, building ourselves up in the Holy
Ghost (Jude 20).
Speaking in tongues is speaking in a God-given language
which helps us to communicate with Father more effectively. It is a New Testament anomaly. There is no evidence of speaking with tongues
before the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1-3) and, as with the disciples, is the initial evidence of
the baptism of the Holy Ghost. The Holy
Ghost gives us utterance when we speak in tongues though we initiate the
action. He speaks the mysteries of God (1 Corinth. 2:10) to our spirit and
helps our infirmities and helps us to pray when we don’t know how (Romans 8:26-27). When we use our prayer language regularly, it
helps us walk closer with the Lord (1
Corinth. 2:11-12) as He helps us to magnify and glorify our Lord.
On the personal level, the praying in tongues
edifies the individual. It is intended
to build ‘me’ up and even though it can be used publicly, Paul give us some
guidelines in 2 Corinthians chapter 14. The
big thing to remember in public use is that God is not the author of confusion,
so things should be done in order because edification of the body is the bottom
line. And the Holy Ghost is till the
author whether in private or public.
The interpretation of tongues is just what
it says, an interpretation, not a translation.
This is why a prophetic tongue may be given and the interpretation may
be shorter or longer when presented.
This is true whether in private or in group, your prayer closet or at
church. The interpretation is given so
hearers may receive an understanding for edification of what the tongues were
conveying. Why be bothered with the
interpretation? The Apostle Paul tells
us that when we pray, we should pray with understanding (1 Corinth. 14:15-17) especially in church so all would be
edified. However, when it is just
the Lord and me, I still ask for understanding so I will have an idea what for
what I’ve just prayed. And even so, the
Holy Ghost is the one who reveals that interpretation.
So, the
Gifts of the Spirit are given by the Holy Ghost, as He sees fit, for
edification of the church. There are
many gifts so there are many ways in which the church, or the individual, can
be edified. We have to yield to the Holy
Ghost (try speaking in tongues without opening your mouth) and follow His
direction. The gifts may be manifested
at a personal level or in a whole congregation for our benefit or a group’s,
but God will always get the glory.
Amen
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