The Holy Spirit (8)

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 12:1–14 ESV

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

Lesson Nine: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit

Central truth: The Gifts of the Spirit are given to profit the Whole Church

Paul inspired by the Spirit to write to the church in Corinth, and the church in general, said, 1 Cor 12:1, “Now, dear brothers and sisters,* regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this.”

ESV, “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed”

If the Spirit of God, through the Apostle Paul, said He didn’t want the Church at Corinth to be ignorant concerning spiritual gifts, then I certainly do not believe He wants the Church today to be ignorant of concerning spiritual gifts.- But yet a gross ignorance does exist

in some places people know nothing at all about them- not even that the gifts exist.

They think these gifts have been done away with

1 Cor 12:1-14, “  Now, dear brothers and sisters,* regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this. 2 You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols. 3 So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice* ; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.* 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages,* while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.

One Body with Many Parts

12 The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. 13 Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles,* some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.*

14 Yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part.

“Manifestation of the Spirit”- phanerōsis- a clear indication of the existence or presence or nature of some person of thing-

When speaking of the Gifts is it a manifestation of the Holy Spirit

The Epistle of First Corinthians is not a letter written to an individual:

It is a letter written to the whole Church

Some have thought these verses apply to an individual, but Paul was telling the whole body or the Church to covet these gifts.

Then when the whole Body covets them, the Spirit will begin to flow

Or as some think

Then the spirit will divide to every man severally as He wills

Implying here that not every man is going to have all these gifts, “For to one (not to everybody) is given a word of wisdom

Some get to focused on the the distribution, that they miss the Spirit- who gives them for the purpose of as 1 Cor 12:11 says, “All these [gifts, achievements, abilities] are inspired and brought to pass by one and the same [Holy] Spirit, Who apportions to each person individually [exactly] as He chooses.”

When Healing is needed the Spirit will appropriate it

When a prophesy is needed the Spirit will appropriate it

God Spoke to a Donkey when it needed to happen

The Gifts of the Spirit Proclaim Jesus as Lord

The church at Corinth had some pculiar things about it that do not exist among us today.

Paul said, “You know that when you were still pagans, you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols.”

These people previously had worshipped idols- Demons

In this idol worship, which was motivated by the wrong spirit, they said a lot of things in error.

Church History tells us that somne of them came into the Church, The christian Assembly, and when the Spirit of God began to manifest Himself, they would say things under the influence of the wrong spirit.

some of them even would arise in the seervice when the gifts of inspiration and utterance were in operation and would say that Jesus was accursed.

One way the devil gets you to stop believing in something is to abuse it and hurt you from it

Many have been hurt by false moves of the spirit- or moves of the wrong spirit- but counterfeits only speak to the power of the authentic!

Paul said that when the Holy Spirit is in operation, He will proclaim Jesus is Lord 1 Cor 12:3, “So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.”

If it is an utterance gift, then of course the Holy Spirit will say that Jesus is Lord. If it the other gifts, they always will uplift the lordship of Jesus, not the lordship of some person.

They will not attract attention to man, but rather to Christ

“So I want you to know that no one speaking by the Spirit of God will curse Jesus, and no one can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.”

We can be sure of one-thing if someone is exercising one of the vocal gifts and calls Jesus is accursed or speaks anything against Him in any way, that is not the Holy Spirit speaking!

Then Paul says that no man can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

He is saying that if a man is speaking by the right spirit, he will say that Jesus is Lord.

Lacking understanding, many people try to operate in a gift without the Spirit.

Perhaps that gift has been manifested in their life on an occasion and they think, “I have that now, and I can operate in it at will.” however, when they do, they invariably get into trouble. They are throwing themselves wide open to satanic deception.

When we get away from the Word, Satan will accommodate us.

Diversities of Gifts

Paul goes on to say, “There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all”

The NKJV, “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.”

The Word “diversities” simply mean “different”.

in other words. Paul is saying, “There are different gifts but the same Spirit. and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are differences of operations, but it is the same God which works all in all”

The Spirit is the same and the expression are different- but is it still the Same Spirit working

Kenneth Hagin says, “There are two theroies on this particular Scripture, and i can see merit in both of them.

One line of thought says that these gifts are administered to different ones in different ways. They say that diversities of operations means that they operate in different ways and not always that same way in different individuals.

On the other hand, there are those who believe that there are diversities of gifts, so there are different gifts, there are differences of administrations, and there are diversities of operations. They say Paul is talking here about three different thins, not just gifts:

He is talking about gifts, administrations, and operations

1 Cor 12:7, “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:”- Paul calls the gifts here manifestation

The Manifestations of them are given to profit the whole Church, not an individual

then Paul goes on to say, “For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of x wisdom, and to another the utterance of y knowledge according to the same Spirit.”- And then He goes on to list the nine manifestations of the Spirit.

Three Categories of Gifts

The Simplest way to describe these nine gifts is tht three of them say something, three of them do something, and three of them reveal something.

The three gifts that say something are gifts of utterance.

they are:

Prophecy

divers kinds of tongues- various kinds of tongues

interpretation of tongues.

The three gifts that do something are the gifts of power.

they are:

the gift of faith

working of Miracles

the gifts of healing

In the original Greek, every time this thrid gift is mentioned, both “gifts” and “healings” are in the plural: gifts and healings

there is no such thing as the gift of healing

The three gifts that reveal something are the gifts of Revelation

they are:

Word of Wisdom

Word of knowledge

the discerning of spirits

Acts 16:16

Some Believe these gifts are listed in importance meaning:

of the gifts of revelation, wisdom is the best gift

of the gifts of power- Faith is the best gift

of the gifts of utterance- the gift of prophecy is the best gift

The Bible tells us to (1 Cor 12:31) “earnestly desire the greater gifts”

NLT- “So you should earnestly desire the most helpful gifts.”- they try to classify the greater gifts as the most helpful

AMP, “But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces).

Memory Text: 1 Cor 12:1, “Now, dear brothers and sisters,* regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us. I don’t want you to misunderstand this.”

Lesson in Action: James 1:22 “But be doers of the Word not hearers only”