The Method for Expressing Spiritual Gifts

Sunday, April 27, 2025

Start with Application Testimony

[Give people an opportunity to share a testimony from last week’s exhortation]

Last week’s exhortation: Pray this week for the Lord to stir up His gifts within you and then look for opportunities to use those gifts to encourage and edify other people.

INTRO

We are going verse-by-verse, in a topical study through I & II Corinthians

Current Topic: Living by the Spirit - Exploring how to live as a Christian

We are talking about Spiritual Gifts, and in the last lessons we learned that Spiritual Gifts are designed to promote unity in the church and to empower us to minister to others.

In this lesson, we will be learning some more practical instruction on how to actually go about expressing the gifts of the Holy Spirit when we gather together.

READ

1 Corinthians 14:26–40 CSB

26 What then, brothers and sisters? Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, there are to be only two, or at the most three, each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no interpreter, that person is to keep silent in the church and speak to himself and God. 29 Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate. 30 But if something has been revealed to another person sitting there, the first prophet should be silent. 31 For you can all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn and everyone may be encouraged. 32 And the prophets’ spirits are subject to the prophets, 33 since God is not a God of disorder but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but are to submit themselves, as the law also says. 35 If they want to learn something, let them ask their own husbands at home, since it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church. 36 Or did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only? 37 If anyone thinks he is a prophet or spiritual, he should recognize that what I write to you is the Lord’s command. 38 If anyone ignores this, he will be ignored. 39 So then, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. 40 But everything is to be done decently and in order.

EXAMINE

#1 | The church gathering is about ministering to one another

We must come to church prepared to minister using whatever gift God has given us

1 Corinthians 14:26 “What then, brothers and sisters? Whenever you come together, each one has a hymn, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Everything is to be done for building up.”

If we go to church to be fed, but are not expecting or prepared to feed others, then we are doing it wrong.

There are no consumers in the kingdom of God - Christ has made each one of us to be a producer of ministry.

There are many ways to minister to one another

Praying together, teaching, singing, encouraging, comforting, caring, counseling, or ministering just by being intentionally present with one another. (Romans 12:6-16)

#2 | We hear from the Holy Spirit together - not in isolation

No one can unilaterally say that God spoke to them. Listening to God is a collaborative effort.

1 Corinthians 14:36 “Or did the word of God originate from you, or did it come to you only?”

Remember that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are meant to encourage collaboration in the church (1 Cor 12:4-7), not to empower one person to take center stage.

Prophecy in the New Covenant does not function like it did in the Old Testament where one person heard from the Lord and everyone had to trust them. Now, everyone in the church can hear from God. (Acts 2:16-18)

We shouldn’t blindly accept something as a “Word from the Lord.” It must be tested.

1 Corinthians 14:29 “Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should evaluate.”

One of the ways we evaluate prophecy is by listening to one another and comparing what is being said. If the Lord is speaking, there will be agreement between the prophecies that are given.

1 Thessalonians 5:20–21 “Don’t despise prophecies, but test all things. Hold on to what is good.”

The way we test a prophecy is checking it against scripture. Nothing the Lord says will ever contradict the scripture. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

#3 | The move of the Holy Spirit is orderly, not chaotic

When the Holy Spirit moves through someone, they don’t lose control of themselves.

1 Corinthians 14:30–32 “But if something has been revealed to another person sitting there, the first prophet should be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that everyone may learn and everyone may be encouraged. And the prophets’ spirits are subject to the prophets,”

When being used by the Holy Spirit, we can still choose when and how to speak and act. Remember that self-control is actually the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives (Gal 5:22-23)

If a person claims to be unable to do this, then this is actually a sign that they are immature in the things of God.

What’s this about women being silent in the church?

There was probably a cultural issue that was relevant to conducting church services in an orderly way.

In 1 Corinthians 11:5-15 Paul gives women instructions to cover their heads when they prophesied in the church - so he’s probably not telling them to be silent just three chapters later.

Due to a common custom with the Oracle of Delphi, who was a popular pagan prophetess in Corinth at the time, the women were likely asking a lot of questions and being disruptive.

In light of 1 Cor 11:5-15, it is more likely that Paul was correcting this behavior - not saying that women could never talk in church.

The move of the Holy Spirit always has a purpose and order to it - it isn’t frenzied or uncontrollable.

1 Corinthians 14:33, 39–40 “...God is not a God of disorder but of peace... So then, my brothers and sisters, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything is to be done decently and in order.”

The Holy Spirit is at work to strengthen the church and lead us into maturity (Eph 4:11-15) not just to give us a sensational emotional experience.

While the move of the Spirit will often stir very strong emotion, we don’t want to fall into the trap of pursuing experiences and feelings.

REFLECT

Let’s take a moment to pray

Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight and draw our attention to what He wants us to see and understand today

APPLY

Process the passage together with these questions:

[Allow the conversation to go where people take it - we want people to feel the liberty to explore the topics of the passage that stand out to them. Select the questions from below that you think are right for the conversation, or add your own. Questions should be focused, yet open-ended. Wherever the conversation goes, help your group “land the plane” on the core idea of the lesson when you wrap up.]

What questions do you have after this lesson?

What are the most common mistakes we make when using Spiritual Gifts?

How can we tell the difference between a genuine move of the Holy Spirit and something we are just emotionally manufacturing?

Where we want to “land the plane”

Spiritual gifts and the work of the Holy Spirit are meant to strengthen the church and honor Christ. So, we should not let pride, ego, or a desire for excitement guide how we do church. When the Holy Spirit moves through others in the church, it can be powerful and emotional, but our goal should not be the feeling itself. Instead, we should focus on glorifying Christ and serving one another in a way that is orderly and guided by the Holy Spirit.

Exhortation for the Week

Practice the Spiritual Gifts that God has given you to the point that you become comfortable them.

FOOTNOTES

Women shouldn’t speak in the church? During the time of the weighing of the prophecies some women, probably married women, who themselves may have been prophetesses and thus entitled to weigh what was said, were asking questions, perhaps inappropriate questions, and the worship service was being disrupted. Paul urges in vv. 34f. that Christian worship not be turned into a question-and-answer session. In light of the discussion of pagan prophecy above, it is very believable that these women assumed that Christian prophets or prophetesses functioned much like the oracle at Delphi, who only prophesied in response to questions, including questions about purely personal matters. Paul argues that Christian prophecy is different: Prophets and prophetesses speak in response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, without any human priming of the pump. Paul then limits such questions to another location, namely home. He may imply that the husband or man who was to be asked was either a prophet or at least able to answer such questions at a more appropriate time. Keener may be right in saying that a pedagogical problem is involved here. Those asking questions were not yet educated enough in the school of Christ to know what was and was not appropriate in Christian worship. Paul affirms their right to learn, but suggests another context. In any case, Paul is correcting an abuse of a privilege, not taking back a woman’s right to speak in the assembly, which he has already granted in ch. 11. Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 287.