gifts cont 2

We continue this teaching series on how this coming of the Holy Spirit changes those early believers and how that same Holy Spirt continues to impact his church, us, today.

During this series we will look at the fruits of the spirit, the spiritual Gifts that the Holy Spirit gives believers and the power the Holy Spirit brings.

The spiritual gifts are listed in a number of places

Romans 12 lists

Prophecy

Serving

Teaching

Exhortation

Giving

Leadership

Mercy

1 Corinthians 12:28-30 lists

Apostle

Prophet

Teacher

Miracles

Kinds of healings

Helps

Administration

Tongues

Ephesians 4:11 Lists

Apostle

Prophet

Evangelist

Pastor

Teacher

Isaiah 11 lists

Spirit of Wisdom

Spirit of understanding

Spirit of counsel

Spirit of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge

Spirit of the fear of the Lord—

We have been working through Pneumatikon 0 Gifts a list of Gifts that are spiritual in character. that we find in 1 Corinthians 12:8-10

The gifts of utterance (speech):

The Gift of Tongues

The Gift of Interpretation of Tongues

The Gift of Prophecy

The gifts of revelation:

The Word of Knowledge

The Word of Wisdom

The Gift of Discerning of spirits

The ability or the power gifts:

The Gift of Faith

The Gifts of Healing

The Working of Miracles

Last week we looked at Speaking in tongues, interpreting tongues and the gift of prophecy.

This week we pick up with a gift that is often confused with prophey

The Word of Knowledge

The Word of Knowledge is the supernatural revelation by the Holy Spirit of certain facts that only God would know.

God os is Omniscient: that is He knows everything about everyone and everything. Nothing is hidden from God

Psalm 139 says

Psalm 139:2–6 NIV

2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

.David ends the psalm with the words that he could not know knowlede like God. The gift of a Word of knowlege is where God lets us glimpse a little of it. The Word of Knowledge is the revelation by God to man by the Holy Spirit of some detail of that Omniscient knowlede

A Word of Knowledge is a nugget of information about some person or object or place, of the occasion of some event. That is given directly from God.

It is not just something we can work out or gather information to glean it is not about being humanly observant or perceptive.

It is a holy spirit given fragment of divine knowledge miraculously conveyed to man by God.

It is miraculous.

There are many examples in Scripture of the use of the Gift of a word of knowledge.possibly the best know example in the new testament is Jesus and the Woman of Samaria (John 4:15-18).

John 4:15–18

John 4:15–18 NIV

15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” 16 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.” 17 “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 18 The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

Jesus did not operate out of his divinity but through the anointing of the Spirit in order to show us how to do it.

Today this gift may manifest as we pray with someone or speak to them God will place a word of knowledge in us to either help us, pray or practically help or like with the woman at the well to both demonstrate Gods power to the person and affect a change event.

ADD VIDEO 3:mins https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2nSeIOBYck up to better than dinner - 6:56

Like prophesy Words of knowlede should be tested.

Was this a word of knowledge or did you just work it out?

If you share this with the person it is about, there is an acid test , is it true. * they may not admit it.

Finally, when God gives you a word of knowledge for someone, it is exactly that - it is for them. You need to consider the privileged position God has put you in when he used you. The word may be highly personal and you need to be considerate about where you share that. In fact I would say, unless there are legitimate safety concerns you probably not share it beyond you and the individual it is for

The Word of Wisdom

We heard in the video, that Scott was given a word of knowledge what was in the present but also what was to be. This is a a Word of Wisdom is the supernatural revelation, by the Spirit, of Divine Purpose; the supernatural unfolding of Gods Plans and Purposes concerning things, places, individuals, communities and nations. It can be huge - for a church or a nation or personal like in the video.

God is ever conscious of all things present and all things future. He must, therefore, also be conscious of the events that actually translate the present into the future.

In a Word of WisdonGod shows us a glimpse of some event that has not yet occurred He is really revealing a fragment of His infinite purpose. He has revealed what He is going to do between now and then and His reason for doing it.

The Word of Wisdom is distinct from the Word of Knowledge but they are closely related and are often seen working together.

The Word of Knowledge is the revelation of past or present events or things. The Word of Wisdom is the revelation of the purpose of God concerning people, things or events in the future.

Examples in the bible are Death of Ahab revealed (1 Kings 21:17-19, 1 Kings 22:34-38) and

Paul's arrest and imprisonment in Jerusalem revealed by Agabus Acts 21:10-14).

Acts 21:10–14 NIV

10 After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. 11 Coming over to us, he took Paul’s belt, tied his own hands and feet with it and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

A word of wisdom is not telling the future

You will not find out next Saturdays lottery results

These gifts come under the same overarching purpose of of building up of the body of Christ, revealing God to unbelievers and ultimately bringing Glory to God.

Like prophecy Words of wisdom should be tested in a similar way to prophecy. Will never contradict the written Word of God, It will always exalt Jesus Christ, etc and there is a defiantly a predictive aspect, it will come to pass.The “FRUIT TEST”

Lets see how the story ends for Scott.

VIDEO

The third Gift in the Gifts of revelation is that of discerning spirits.

The Discerning of Spirits

The Discerning of Spirits is the supernatural revelation, by the Spirit, to determine the spirit that is in operation in a given situation.

We live in a world that is both natural and supernatural.

May things in the world are purely natural I want to give this disclaimer that not everything in you life that goes wrong is because there is a spiritual force at work. I would go as far as saying most of the time the only force at work is us, those around me or natural laws

I once crashed my car was that because satan was at work or was it because I was driving too fast, (me) or the other car pulled out without looking (others) or the road was wet lowering the coefficient of friction enough that my tyres slipped on the surface and I could not stop in time. A natural law of physics.

But on occasion there is defiantly a spirt element to the things that happen around us and to us whether from God or from another source.

The gift of Discerning of Spirits gives supernatural insight into the secret realms of spirits. It reveals the kind of the spirit that is activating a person who is manifesting supernatural knowledge or power at the time that the event is actually taking place.

Or gives insight into the spiritual arena that is affecting locations, events and attitudes.

The final three gifts noted in 1 Corinthians 12:8 are the

The ability or the power gifts:

The Gift of Faith

The Gifts of Healing

The Working of Miracles

These gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to allow us to fulfill the commands of Jesus.

Luke 9:2 NIV

2 and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.

Matthew 10:8 NIV

8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

Matthew 10:1 NIV

1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

it is fairly clear we are commanded to allow our selves to be used to heal and see miracles.

The Gifts of Healings

We will start with the first thing to notice is that there are gifts of healings (plural).

If we look at the healings that Jesus performed we will see that they take a number of forms, from things being created, they eyes of the blind man, things being removes, scales or sores that disappeared to the ‘I don’t know what happend, they are healed’ like the crippled man told to pick up the mat and walk.

One thing is for sure, these gifts are for the supernatural healing of diseases and infirmities without natural means of any sort.

These gifts are the miraculous manifestation of the spirit for the healing of human illness. They are not to be confused with medical or surgical or scientific ability.They can manifest though as the accelerated natural process. - the bone will heal (natural process), but not in the 2 days between being prayed for and the next x-ray.

Supernatural Healings through the Gifts of Healings are brought about by the power of Christ through the Spirit and not by human ability. The gifts work only according to faith. The gift is a gift to the person being healed and not to the ‘messenger’

The uses of the gifts of healings include:

• To deliver the sick and destroy the works of the devil in the human body (Mark 1:32-34)

To authorise the Gospel message as preached by servants of God (Ephesians 1:11-12)

• To authorise the message of the Gospel (Acts 8:6-7)•

To draw people within earshot of the Gospel (John 6:2)•

To turn people to God (Acts 9:32-35)• To convince unbelievers of the truth of God's Word (Mark 2:12) Healing is split out from the other miracles, though it is defiantly a miracle.

The effecting (working) of Miracles

A miracle is a supernatural intervention in the ordinary course of nature; a temporary suspension of the usual order; an interruption of the system of nature as we know it.

The Working of Miracles operates by the supernatural power of the Spirit in reversals or suspensions of natural laws. A miracle is a sovereign act of the Spirit of God irrespective of laws or systems. A miracle is not some undiscovered law. A miracle has no explanation other than the sovereign power of God. God is not bound by the natural laws of the universe. God acts as He wills; within or outside of what we understand to be natural laws or supernatural laws. When God, in a sovereign act, steps outside the boundaries or laws by which creation is bound, it's a miracle.

Example: Miracle at Cana —Jesus turns water into wine (John 2:1-11)

The use of the working of Miracles includes:•

The miraculous deliverance of God's people out of the hand of the enemy (Exodus 14)•

To provide for those in need (Exodus 17:6, John 6:1-14)•

To carry out divine judgements and disciplines (Exodus 14:26-27).

To deliver from unavoidable situations of danger (Matthew 8:23-26).

To raise the dead (John 11:1-47)

To display God's power and magnificence

Healings and miracles seem to go hand in hand with Faith. And faith is a gift.

The gift of faith

The Gift of Faith is a gift of the Spirit to a us that we might receive miracles or through the holy Spirit be involved in them

The Gift of Faith is miraculous and supernatural like all the other Gifts of the Spirit.

The Gift of Faith is a supernatural gift by the Spirit whereby that which is uttered or desired by man, or spoken by God, shall eventually come to pass.

The Gift of Faith is distinct from the Working of Miracles, though both produce miracles. You could draw a distinction that Miracles' operation is more active than passive, more immediate and sort term. While Faith's operation is more passive than active, often over a longer time frame. Issac’s blessing was achieved by the gift of Faith, it took nearly a life time to fulfil.

We often articulate a lack of the manifestation of spiritual gifts down to a lack of faith as if we have to save it up until we have enough. But faith is a gift, we are given it. I do not believe for one moment that god gives us less than we need.

I believe that we as believers these pneumatikon, these gifts with a spiritual character, should be evidenced in our lives and amongst us. OI believe will be given any and all of these gifts but we have to be available and willing. So that when a gift is given us we can partner with the Holy spirit to let it work along side our God given abilities, despite our frailties for the glory of God.

The choice of which gift we receive, whether of the pneumatikon or of serving or leadership gifts, is that of the Holy Spitits and yet he Holy Spirits decision is is not independent of the our desires and humble prayerful seeking. Corinthians tells us to 'earnestly desire the greater gifts' (12:31) and 'especially prophecy' (14:1). The sovereignty of the giver does not negate human responsibility. We are called to desire, ask for, practice and foster the gifts.

It could be the pneumatikon form corinthians 12: Those in Romans:

Prophecy

Serving

Teaching

Exhortation

Giving

Leadership

Mercy

Later in corinthians

Apostle

Prophet

Teacher

Miracles

Kinds of healings

Helps

Administration

Tongues

In Ephesians 4:11

Apostle

Prophet

Evangelist

Pastor

Teacher

Or Isaiah 11

Spirit of Wisdom

Spirit of understanding

Spirit of counsel

Spirit of might,

the Spirit of the knowledge

Spirit of the fear of the Lord—

We are called to desire the higher gifts, that they may build up the body of christ, convince the unbeliever and bring Glory to God.

Lets pray