This broadcast serves as an introduction to an 11-part series on the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. During this series, Carl will take time to show where each of the nine gifts of the Spirit operated, throughout the Old and New Testaments. Did the spiritual gifts pass away with the last Apostle or can we still operate in them today? Are these gifts for us only, or to bless others? Is the Book of Acts still being written by faithful men and women today? Carl will clearly define each gift, sharing personal testimonies of how God manifested these gifts in his own life. Tune in now, to find out…
Here is a complete transcript of the podcast…
Friend, the Apostle Paul spoke by inspiration of the Holy Spirit to the Church at Corinth when he said,” Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.” (1 Cor 12:1). There is indeed much ignorance of the spiritual gifts in the church today friend, and that’s partly why I’m embarking today upon a series of broadcasts, nine in fact, starting tomorrow, that will cover in detail each of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. In some churches people know absolutely nothing about the gifts of the Holy Spirit or don’t know if they even exist today, for that matter and this is really sad. Some ministers even preach the gifts have been done away with. Friend this is nothing but ignorance gone to seed. Some have even gone so far as to write books and doctoral theses about how God has become weakened in these last days and can no longer assist the church in the gifts operation, as He once did. According to some, around 300 AD He just up and quit and left the Church without power or Gifts….PHeweee! Nonsense.
It wasn’t that God up and left His church and quit manifesting His gifts, no friend, it’s because man quit operating in faith and consequently it appeared like these gifts left the church because they operate by faith. Remember what the Apostle Paul told Timothy in 1 Tim 1:6, “Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God, which is in thee“. Friend, we are the ones who stir up the spiritual gifts otherwise they remain dormant until we do so. We have a part to play in the manifestation of God’s spiritual gifts by making ourselves available for God to use us. Just to familiarize ourselves with some brief church history, back in the 1960’s and 70’s there was an outpouring in the United States and around the world, known as the Charismatic Movement. That move of God was categorized by thousands of nominal believers in denominational churches being filled with the Holy Spirit and praying in tongues as the initial evidence with prophecy also, on occasion. God shook the walls of conventional church during that time and I sincerely believe there is soon approaching another move of God’s Spirit that will sweep over the denominations once more in this nation, as we approach Christ’s return.
Friend, do you know that we should desire spiritual gifts and the Bible speaks plainly about this? “Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy” (1 Cor 14:1). There should be an innate desire within us to move in the spiritual gifts. The trouble is, just like on Christmas day, we can leave the gifts under the tree or we can choose to open them. Let’s open them together friend, in the coming days and discuss each gift in detail and how they operate with specific examples in the Bible.
Now according to Acts 1:8, just prior to His ascension, Jesus told his disciples that they would receive the necessary power to be effective witnesses for Him and also instructed them to tarry in Jerusalem for this outpouring of the Holy Spirit, also known as the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. this manifestation, later occurred in Jerusalem during the Jewish feast of Pentecost, and the arrival of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus’ disciples was accompanied by speaking in tongues (Acts 2:4). Peter declared to all who were present, this event was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel 2:28–32, i.e. the outpouring of the Spirit upon all God’s people in the last days culminating in Israel’s final redemption (Acts 2:14–21). The Holy Spirit’s reception with tongues as the initial evidence by the disciples in the Upper Room was evidence of its outpouring and indispensable after the conversion experiences of those who came to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, including the Gentiles.
Friend, in all my years walking with the Lord I have never once met anyone who operates in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as the Bible outlines their usage, who’s not first been baptized with the Holy Spirit with, the evidence of speaking in tongues. Now I’m not saying these people can’t hear from God, or apply their faith in praying for the sick either, I’m not saying that. Let me ask you this what other evidence can you provide that you are Spirit filled other than tongues? It’s the only evidence the Bible offers in addition to prophecy on rare occasions. In fact, you could argue that tongues is the gateway to the other gifts and when I say ‘tongues’ ,I’m talking about your private prayer language that’s imparted when we receive the promise of the Father, that Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:4.
The Promise of the Father that Jesus spoke of to his disciples that they later received in the Upper room of Jerusalem; was in fact endowment with power from on high, in order to evangelize the world as he saw fit. Certain signs followed them in their ministry and one of these signs was praying in tongues. The point being, if Jesus considered the disciples to be equipped to evangelize in their condition of just being saved, he would not have offered this subsequent outpouring of God’s spirit to do the works of Jesus. No friend, he wanted them to tarry for a second outpouring of the Holy Spirit and this same outpouring is available today for all who will believe God for it, it has not ceased friend. Can I let you into a secret? Not all who pray in tongues or the Spirit are snake handlers who choose to forego basic bodily hygiene. No friend lets shatter these stereotypes right now and honor God and his wonderful charismata and put aside any stigma we may harbor to the outpourings of God’s spirit. There are doctors, lawyers, Engineers, nurses, teachers and garbage collectors who all pray in tongues or the Spirit as it’s sometimes called. In fact there are 600 million people worldwide who pray this way and that number is rapidly rising.
The book of Acts has never finished my friend, if you turn to the last chapter, you will see there is no real ending but a description of Paul’s house arrest. The Book of acts is really a book which documents the acts of the Holy Spirit, not the Acts of the Apostles because believe it or not, there are still prophets and apostles in ministry offices today and Eph 4:11 makes this very clear. The Book of Acts is still being written friend and you can be a part of this ongoing historical account if you choose to.
I always urge anyone I meet to study the Bible for themselves. Just because your Pastor doesn’t believe in the spiritual gifts or preach about healing today or talk about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, does not mean he’s correct, he could be ignorant of these manifestations also. This Spirit filled outpouring is not an exclusive little club for the privileged few, no friend, God wants His Spirit manifest in all the earth and this includes the capital city of Denver. Now spiritual gifts come from the phrase regularly used to translate two Greek words, charismata and pneumatika. Both words are almost exclusively Pauline within the biblical writings; elsewhere in the NT they appear only in 1 Peter 2:5 and 4:10. Other writers, of course, mention phenomena that fall within Paul’s definition of “spiritual gifts,” but for specific teaching on the subject one must depend on the Apostle Paul first and foremost, as he is the one who talked exclusively about the gifts of the spirit. Let’s read now from 1 Cor 12:4-11 concerning the spiritual gifts:
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; 9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; 10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: 11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.“
As you can see there are 9 gifts in total and they can be categorized as the revelation gifts, the power gifts and the utterance or inspirational gifts. As you can tell, they fall into three categories of three. The revelation gifts are the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge and the discerning of spirits because when these gifts are in operation, they reveal something to us. Next would be the power gifts comprising of the gift of faith, the working of miracles and the gifts of healing. Obviously these are power gifts because in each case they manifest God’s power to accomplish something physically. And finally, the inspirational or utterance gifts comprise of the gift of prophecy, Divers tongues and the Interpretation of tongues. It should be noted here that if a tongue and interpretation is offered in a public setting, this is equivalent to prophecy and prophecy in the NT dispensation is primarily to edify, comfort and exhort others, not tear them down. The gift of prophecy therefore has no aspect of prediction or foretelling to it, as will be explained in detail in the coming sessions.
Now some scholars contend that in each of the categories I’ve mentioned; that the first gift listed is the most important. In other words of the three revelation gifts, the word of wisdom would be the most important because it reveals Gods plans and future will. Of the three power gifts, the gift of faith is the best gift because through it we have the supernatural ability to work miracles. And finally of the three utterance gifts, prophecy is the best gift because it’s complete in and of itself as it brings edification, comfort and encouragement to the Body of Christ. However, the other two utterance gifts can only offer this encouragement when they are combined in a public setting. Friend, know this, any gift in operation will always attest to the fact that Jesus is Lord and will glorify Him.
“Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” (1 Cor 12:3)
In other words, Paul is saying that whenever the true spiritual gifts are in operation, Jesus will be magnified as Lord. Man will never be lauded but only Jesus himself, as the Holy Spirit operates.
“Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal (1 Cor 12:4-5).”
There are two ways to interpret this verse. You could say that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are administered to different people in different ways as He wills it. That’s what’s meant by ‘diversities of operations’. In other words some believe the Apostle Paul meant that the gifts of the Spirit will operate in different ways and not always the same way, through various people and I believe this to be true.
The other way of interpreting this verse is to think of diversities of operation as not referring to the gifts at all but in other words just as there are different gifts of the Spirit, there are different ways in which these may be administered. So Paul was talking here about gifts, administrations and operations, not just gifts. In 1 Cor 12:7, Paul calls the gifts of the Spirit, ‘manifestations’, so Paul was making the distinction here that the ‘gifts’ of the Spirit aren’t gifts in the sense that a believer owns and operates the gift whenever he wants to at his discretion. No, they are gifts of the Holy Spirit manifested through individual believers as the Spirit of God wills them. The gifts of the Spirit aren’t just given for the individual, but they are given in order to profit the whole local assembly or local body of believers. Friend, I will begin our specific discussion on the spiritual gifts with the gift of the word of wisdom, so stay tuned.
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