Purpose of Spirituals
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Holy Spirit Ministers: the Lost and Saved
The Lost - Conviction - John 16 Bring them to God
The Saved - Individually and Collectively
Individually
Regenerates or Transforms us.
2 Corinthians 3:18 (KJV 1900)
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Assures Us.
13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
Adopts Us.
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Seals Us.
Indwells Us.
13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
Frees Us.
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Empowers Us.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Unity Functions in Teamwork with Diversity
we minister to each other with our strengths, to make them strong
So there is one Spirit, same Spirit, same Lord, same God, working in all of us, but through diversities of ways.
Diversity - We all have a variety of gifts.
Different Varieties
Varieties of Power - vs. 6 Operations
Varieties of Manifestations - vs. 5 - Administrations
The Unity of Spirituals
The Unity of Spirituals
Spirituals - vs. 1
Spirituals - vs. 1
- the Source is the Holy Spirit
Gifts - vs. 4
Gifts - vs. 4
- Charismatic
Charis means grace. Grace means an undeserved gift. When you look at your spiritual capacity, remember this, it is a charisma. It is a gift of God’s grace. You didn’t deserve it.
What you have is a gift, purely a grace gift. That word is used 17 times in the New Testament. Eleven times it refers to spiritual gifts and the other times it refers to salvation. Is salvation a free gift? Did you deserve it? Did you earn it? No. And so spiritual gifts are free gifts, undeserved and unearned, granted by God’s wonderful, loving, gracious kindness.
Administration - vs. 5 -
Administration - vs. 5 -
diakoneon, diakanas, diakanea, diakeneo, the verb.
Do you know what that means? What word do we have like that? Deacon. What does the word deacon mean? Servant. What is it saying? There are different grace gifts, different spirituals, different Holy Spirit energize and ailments, and there are different services.
Listen, another word for spiritual gift is services. That’s another term for it. It isn’t adding a different concept. It’s just a different way to say the same thing. But I’ll tell you one thing, it tells me the purpose of my gifts.
What are my gifts for? Service. The same word exactly. The same word, the diakanas word, in one form or another, appears, for example, in this verse, “For the son of man … Mark 10:45 … came not to be ministered unto, but to what?… it’s the same word … to serve … to serve.” What does it mean? It means to serve, to be a servant.
“Spiritual gifts are not designed as special privileges for the one who has them.” My spiritual gift isn’t for my edification.
10 As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
All the gifts are for somebody else. Serve one another in divine energy. They are building you up.
12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Operations - vs. 6 - Energizing
Operations - vs. 6 - Energizing
God empowers differently the believer for functioning. Now don’t confuse this with natural talent. This is divine energizing. The Father is involved in energizing us, and there are differences of energizings. It’s amazing.
The Spirit of God, when we begin to function in that capacity that God has gifted us for, there’s a flow of divine energy that’s thrilling. And it comes right out, and it energizes the Word as it comes out of me and into you.
7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.
Manifestations - vs. 7
Manifestations - vs. 7
The word manifestation means to make clear, to make visible, to make known, to make manifest. It means the very opposite of to hide or to be private. It means to be public.
What are the spiritual gifts then for? They are for the manifestation. They are … listen to this now … to be a visible, clear, manifest, public display.
“The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every Christian to profit withal (for the common good).”
That’s what soomfero in the Greek mean. “It isn’t given for His good, but the good of soomfero, all of those who have gathered together.” That’s what the word means.
It’s a compound word. It means to gather together.
What’s your spiritual gift for? It’s to manifest the work of the Spirit to everybody that’s been gathered together. Maybe there’s only one other one, maybe there’s two, maybe there’s three, maybe there’s … like in our Sunday morning …, whatever it is. See, that’s the point.
My gifts are not intended for private purposes. My gifts are for the common good. Whatever the gift is, it is to profit everybody.
You say, “But what about the gift of languages?” Do you know something, in chapter 14 He says, “Don’t ever, ever use the gift of languages unless it’s what? Interpreted. Because, even though it was a sign to unbelieving Israel it had to be interpreted because that gives it another edifying element to the church. See? And no gift should be anything other than edifying to the people who are gathered together. That’s assumed in all the gifts. So when somebody says they have a private one, that isn’t so. It’s to profit, literally, the common good, to bring everybody together, and to manifest the Spirit to all those who were brought together. And we’ll see more about that as we go.
The Diversity of Spirituals
The Diversity of Spirituals
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:
Speaking Gifts:
Word of Wisdom
Word of Wisdom
The Word of Wisdom means the wisdom of God; this is made clear by
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
The wisdom of God is the truth which God has now revealed to man; it is the whole system of truth revealed by God—the truth about God and man and the world.
The emphasis is on the skill of application rather than the knowledge of facts.
Wisdom is the ability to take the facts that the gift of knowledge has brought out and make a skillful application of them. This could belong to a Christian counselor who sees a problem, and by his knowledge of the Word of God, he draws out the principles that can be practically applied to the solving of the problem.
What is the gift of wisdom? The Holy Spirit-given ability to show us the principles that we need to know and obey to fulfill God’s will.
Therefore, the word of wisdom is the gift to share the wisdom and truth of God with men—to share the truth in simple and understandable language.
Word of Knowledge
Word of Knowledge
the word of knowledge (gnosis). This is practical knowledge.
It’s the Spirit-given ability to observe biblical facts and make conclusions. The spiritual gift of observing biblical facts and making conclusions. In other words, it’s the ability to understand the Bible.
I praise God for people like this. I don’t have the gift of knowledge. I have to read other people who have it to help me to understand it. Then I can take it from there and apply it. The gift of knowledge, the ability to observe biblical facts and make conclusions.
It is knowing what to do in the day-to-day situations that arise. It is knowing how to apply the wisdom that one has to daily living.
Making conclusions by observation.
It is being able to make practical application of truth to life. It does no good to know truth unless a person knows how to use the truth.
The word of knowledge is the gift to share with others how they should live; the ability to apply truth to their lives in day-to-day living; the ability to make practical application of truth to life.
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;
Serving Gifts
Faith
Faith
There is the gift of faith.
“What is the gift of faith?” Well obviously it is a supernatural capacity for believing God. It is a supernatural capacity for believing God.
Somebody to whom obstacles are only challenges.
Somebody who believes beyond what is visible. Now I’m sure in the early years of the church, in the first century, it was connected with miracles, and it was connected with very very astonishing miracles, but in our day the gift of faith is connected with prayer and with God’s response to prayer as we see Him work today.
We don’t mean by the gift of faith here saving faith. All of us have received that. We don’t mean the general faith by which we live. We all manifest that, but this is a special gift limited to certain Christians. It has to do with an intensive ability to trust God, an unusual capacity to believe God in the face of a storm, in the face of enormous obstacles.
Jesus pinpointed it in
20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.
when He said, “If you had the faith of a grain of mustard seed you could say to that mountain be removed.”
And Paul reiterates that in
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
and he says, “If I have all faith so that I could remove mountains,” and there is the gift beyond what anyone else could believe to be done, the gift of faith can lay hold of the promise of God.
And read Matthew 21, God says, “If you ask anything,” Jesus said, “Believing you shall receive it.” Faith activates God.
There are many New Testament Scriptures, say that, faith activates God. You say, “But I don’t always have a lot of faith.” Yeah, well you can thank God that somebody else does on your behalf. You know there are certain people that when I have a need I want them to know about it because they have the faith to activate the power of God in a certain thing.
It is a very special gift of faith: a mustard seed faith, a strong faith, a powerful faith, a wonder-working faith, a special gift of faith that enables a believer to do great things for God and His people.
Now listen, it is this kind of faith that supports all of us, that under girds all of us, because all of the gifts edifies others. It is the power to lay hold on God’s promises for the benefit of everybody.
When you go down through the book of Hebrews, the 11th Chapter, and see those heroes of faith, Abel, and Noah, and Abraham, Moses, and Joshua, and David and all the time, every time you see their faith it is on their faith that somebody else is strengthened. It is on their faith that something wonderful happens to somebody else. With the history of the church there has been thousands of saints who believed God in the face of terrible fear and even death, who strengthened them who are around. There are people today with this gift that don’t see any obstacles, who just believe God for amazing things. That’s exciting.
Sign Gifts:
Healing
Healing
Please do not assume that by what I say I do not believe God heals. I do believe God heals. God heals in answer to prayer, God heals miraculously in answer to prayer, God heals, heals miraculously in an answer to prayer in order to reveal His glory.
I do not question God’s healing.
I do not question His miraculous healing if He so chooses in response to the prayers of saints. What I want you to understand is the difference between by God and the gift of healing. There is a great difference between God healing someone immediately and God healing someone through a human healer and that’s the distinction that we wish to make.
Healing is the ability to restore the physical.
Jesus healed with a word, a touch, instantaneously, totally, everybody and He healed organic diseases and Jesus raised the dead.
I’m not saying that God doesn’t heal, but He does do and he can do anything that He wants to.
That’s up to God, but I’ll tell you one thing, there’s no evidence biblically and there’s no evidence practically that anybody today is operating the gift of healing. If God wants to heal that’s His business, that’s His privilege and He may do it, and He may do it through the prayers of an individual. In fact He promises that the prayer of faith shall what? Save the sick, but let’s not confuse God’s healing in response to prayer with the ability to go around and heal everybody at will, as Jesus could do and as the apostles could do and we’ll see that next time.
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:
Miracles
Miracles
dunamis - Power Working of Power
There are times when circumstances and situations arise, and believers need a miraculous deliverance of some sort.
I believe if you study the gospels and see where Jesus used the gift of power, it had to do with the casting out of demons used to show the power of God’s kingdom over the control of Satan’s kingdom of Darkness.
Listen dispelling demons and diseases was Christ’s way of confirming that He was God in flesh, the Messiah, the Savior. And as Jesus came toward the end of His ministry the miracles began to get less and less and less because He’d gotten His message across and they had no other reason to exist and they faded out. I’m not saying that God doesn’t do miracles.
Prophecy
Prophecy
This is the gift of speaking under the inspiration of God’s Spirit. It includes both prediction and proclamation.
The Predictive part is done away but the proclamation part of truth still exists as a speaking gift.
Discerning of Spirits
Discerning of Spirits
The root word for discern, diacreno means to judge through, or to see through something to the truth that is there, to truly evaluate something, and discerning spirits is simply to evaluate the spirit, whether it is God or it is a spirit other than the Holy Spirit.
Now in the early church it’s very clear how this gift would manifest itself. This gift was the watchdog of the church. This was the patrol. This was the guard, the sentinel for the church. In the early years of the church when the Bible had not been written the New Testament was not penned, people would say, God says this and God says this and I’m a prophet of God and I speak for the Holy Spirit, and it was difficult to know who did and who didn’t. And there was some people that the Spirit of God gave a supernatural ability to so that they could say you’re true, you’re a phony, you’re for real, you’re not; the gift of discerning spirit. That is the Spirit of God speaking they would say, that is not the spirit of God speaking but a demon spirit that is from Satan here and so forth.
Now the sad part of the Corinthian church is that the people who had that gift were either not using it or when they did use it they were being ignored by the rest so that as we saw in 1 Corinthians 12:3, somebody had actually stood up in the assembly and cursed Jesus and they had agreed that it was from the Holy Spirit. Well somebody with the gift of discernment should have stood up and said, “That is not the Spirit of God speaking,” and they should have listened to that. That’s what the gift primarily was used for. In 1 Corinthians 14:29 Paul calls on the Corinthians to exercise it. “Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the others judge.” Let them discern. Let’s have somebody checking on what’s being said. It’s a very important for the protection of the church.
Divers Kinds of Tongues
Divers Kinds of Tongues
The Ability to speak an unknown language.
Interpretation of Tongues
Interpretation of Tongues
The ability to interpret the unknown language.
The Dispensing of Spirituals
The Dispensing of Spirituals
11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
Verse 11, “All these gifts work … same word, energizing. He says, “All these work that one and very same Spirit.” Boy, the Spirit’s behind all the gifts. And watch this, “Dividing to whom?… to whom?… every man.”
How many Christians have gifts? All of them. There’s not a spiritual elite. You can’t say, “Oh, yes, the gifted ones are up on the podium.” No, no, you’re all gifted. Mine’s just different, that’s all. Same thing. We’re all gifted. Mine’s different than yours. You can do what I can’t do in His energy.
Now watch … we all have them, but look at this beautiful […] dividing to all, every man. That’s universality,
severally, that’s individuality.
The word severally, interesting word in the Greek, idious, from which we get idiot. Do you know what an idiot is? That’s somebody like whom there is nobody else, only one of those kind. […] would say, “Boy, he’s an idiot.” That comes from that longo, peculiar. Peculiar originally didn’t mean peculiar like we think of it. Peculiar meant, he’s the only one, one of a kind, unique. Listen to this, “The Spirit of God gives universally the gifts, but to every individual He gives them … what?… peculiarly.” Nobody’s got like yours. You’re a snowflake. It’s not mass production, “All right 43 teachers in that section, 84 givers over here, 49 with faith.” No. Like little rubber ducks all quacking together. Everybody is different, and everybody’s uniqueness manifests itself in a unique way. “And so the Spirit of God divides to every man severally and as He will.”
Remember this people; you can’t go seek a gift. That’s a gift from God in the first place, and in the second place, He’s the one who wills which one He gives. Right?
Are you energized for the work of the ministry?
You are if you are filled with the Holy Spirit!