1 CORINTHIANS 12:7-112004 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 1 Corinthians 12:7-11

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2004. Paul here begins his discussion on the subject of spiritual gifts. And he says, brethren, those who are believers, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, I don't want you to be ignorant, Paul says. I don't want you to lack understanding on the topic, the subject, spiritual gifts.

This is something I want you to understand and know, Paul would say. And so as we look today, there's nine spiritual gifts that Paul looks at in verses 8 through 11. And we want to understand them. Now, we will be going through them quite briefly because of our lack of time this morning. And, you know, I don't...

think you want to stay here till one or two o'clock in the afternoon or even further we could go as we look at in depth and many of these things but we do want to look at them and get an understanding of what these gifts are and what they're for but i would encourage you um as i did last week to to pick up the book living water by pastor chuck as cisco mentioned they're at the book table outside and and uh you know if we do run out we'll order one for you but he goes in much more detail uh

into each of the gifts and their purpose and the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

Well, as we looked at last week, we saw three things from verses 4, 5, and 6 that Paul said that there was diversities of gifts or different kinds of gifts. And so we'll look at that this morning, some of the different gifts that God has given. We'll look at nine of them, but it's not by all means, you know, all of the ones that God has given. But it's just a sample that Paul gives us. But we'll look at some of those. But in verse 5, he says there's differences of ministries.

And we talked about how you might have one gift, say you have the gift of teaching, but in your ministry, it's different than the ministry that others are called to. Some might have the gift of teaching and they're called to the junior high and high school ministry. Or others might have a gift of teaching and they're called to the children's ministry. Or they're called to evangelize or to have a Bible study at their work. The gift of teaching can be used in a lot of different ministries.

Well, not only can the gifts be used in different ministries and as God has appointed them for that, but in verse 6 he also explains to us that there's diversities of activities. So not only are there different gifts, not only are there different ministries, but there's different activities, different ways that those gifts are used.

And we gave the example last week that for the gift of teaching, you might use a flannel graph or you might use a pulpit. You might use some other object lessons. You might use it in a different way than others. But God has given us gifts and given us callings within the body of Christ that we might edify, that we might build up the body of Christ. Now, it's important for us not to confuse spiritual gifts with callings.

Spiritual gifts are what God gives us. They're things that we can all use. In fact, these gifts that he mentions here in this portion of scripture that we'll look at, I believe are for every believer. That all of us at one time or another could potentially use these gifts and could use every single one of them as we serve the Lord, as we minister within our calling.

God has called each and every one of us as part of the body of Christ, as a unit, for a purpose, that we might fulfill something that God wants to do, that we might accomplish a work that He wants to accomplish. And so as we are called to these things, the gifts that are listed is the way that God empowers us to fulfill those callings. You might have heard the saying, it's very popular among Christian churches, that God's calling is His enabling.

God's calling is His enabling. When He calls you to a work, He's going to give you everything that you need to accomplish that work. This is how God enables us. This is how God gives us what we need by giving us spiritual gifts. Things and abilities that we don't have in our own strength, but gifts, strengths that come from the power of God, from the Spirit of God. He enables us by giving us what we need

In the moment. To meet the need that he's called us to meet. He gives us the gifts that we need whenever we need them to fulfill his ministry, to accomplish his purposes. Now, as we're using these gifts, as we look at these things, we need to understand too that many times it happens, I believe, without us really understanding or knowing. It's not like, you know, the first one that he mentions in verse 8 is the word of wisdom. And we'll look at that. Bless you.

The word of wisdom. Now, you might notice that there's no ministry of wisdom. If you look at our bulletin, there's no wisdom ministry that you can call and just have wisdom anytime you want. There's no 1-800-WISDOM hotline or anything like that. But wisdom is a gift that God gives us to accomplish what he wants us to do in the moment as we're fulfilling the ministry that he's called us to. And many times it happens very naturally. It doesn't go...

There's a message from God coming in. It's a message of wisdom. Okay, here it comes. It's not awkward or weird like that. It doesn't mean the person has to be in some kind of trance or spaced out. Many times it will happen very naturally that God will speak through a person, through an individual, through you or I. Anytime, anywhere, we can receive these gifts, we can use these gifts, and we can take part in the work that God wants to do.

So let's look at these. There's nine of them. The first one, verse 8, he says, For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit. To one is given the word of wisdom. Now, it's important to remember to understand, as he talks about these gifts, it doesn't mean that...

You become the superman of that gift. For example, the word of wisdom. It doesn't mean you become all suddenly, suddenly you become like Solomon, right? The wise king of the Old Testament that we know that there was no one wiser than him ever before or ever again except for Jesus Christ. He was the wise king. People would come from all over to hear his wisdom.

If God gives you a gift of wisdom or a word of wisdom, it doesn't mean that automatically you become Solomon. You become this wealth of wisdom. Call me. Come talk to me. I'll give you wisdom. I have all understanding and I understand all things and I'll be able to give you the right words, the right things to do in any given situation. No, that's not what happens. In fact, it happens very differently than that. We need to also understand that wisdom and knowledge are two different things. Wisdom...

Well, let's start with knowledge. Knowledge, we know, is the collection of facts, of information. It's getting to know things.

For example, you might know that a certain type of snake is poisonous. That's knowledge. Wisdom says, okay, stay away from that snake because it's poisonous. It's putting that knowledge to use. It's applying it to everyday life and taking action as a result. Wisdom is important. We saw Jesus use the words of wisdom, the gift that Paul is talking about here, many times throughout his ministry.

One particular point or time that I'll highlight here is Matthew chapter 22, verses 15 through 22.

And it was a situation that the Pharisees were trying to trap Jesus. They were trying to trick him into either admitting, not admitting, but trying to condemn himself before the Romans or trying to turn the crowd against him. What happened was the scribes and Pharisees, they came up to him and they said, hey, is it right? Is it lawful? According to God's word, should we pay taxes to Caesar?

They were hoping that if Jesus said, well, no, we shouldn't pay taxes to Caesar, that they could march him right down to the Roman army and say, look, this guy's an insurrectionist. He's teaching people not to pay taxes and that they could be done away with him in that sense.

Or, if Jesus answered the other way, yes, you should pay taxes to Caesar, that the crowd then would turn on him and say, oh man, because they hated the Roman rule. They hated that the Romans were ruling over them and had the authority to make them pay taxes. And so, they thought they had Jesus and a catch-22. It's like, okay, either way he answers, we got him, no problem. We're going to get rid of this guy for sure. But Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit,

answered in a word of wisdom. And he says, hey, whose inscription is on that? Let me see that coin. And they said, well, it's Caesar's inscription. And so he said, okay, well, give to Caesar what's Caesar's and to God what's God's. And the people, it says, went away marveling. How can you answer that? How can you respond to that? What can you say? It was a word of wisdom. Something that came at the right time, at the right moment to resolve a situation, to resolve a conflict, to accomplish a work that God wanted to do.

So we should pray for this gift. In fact, this is a gift that I pray for many times as situations come up in my life. Personally, here in ministry, there's many times where I need wisdom and I pray that God would give me words of wisdom, that I would understand what he wants to do and what he has to say about a situation. But we should all seek this gift. We should all desire to hear from God what he would have us do, what he would have us answer to those who are questioning.

This gift can be used at church, obviously, but it doesn't have to be used only at church or in an afterglow type setting. But it can be used among your personal conflicts with family members, with friends, with co-workers, with people you run into at the gas station or the grocery store. That God will give you as you rely upon him, as you allow his spirit to speak through you, he'll give you words of wisdom and

to speak, to say, to utter, to share with those around you, to answer and to resolve those things, to resolve those conflicts and situations.

the first gift, a word of wisdom. We need to be sensitive and open to the Holy Spirit. Allow the Lord to speak to us and through us in words of wisdom. You know, Pastor Chuck shared that many times because he is on the radio program, Pastor's Perspective, and To Every Man an Answer, and that's where people call in and they ask their difficult questions, the questions that they have about Scripture or the things going on. And he says many times when he's sharing, he knows that it's

it's God doing the work, that it's a word of wisdom because when he begins to answer the question, he's not sure what he's going to say. And as he's answering the question and he might not even know the answer or he doesn't know exactly what he's going to say, but...

Not only is the person who is having their question answered blessed because the Spirit's speaking to them and answering their question, Pastor Chuck says, hey, I'm blessed too because I get to hear the answer too. I'm speaking it, but it's not me. It's not from my resources. It's God speaking through me. And I get to experience and understand and know what the Lord is saying about that question, about that situation, just like the person hearing it. That's how a word of wisdom works.

that as we share, as we speak, as we answer questions, we rely upon God to speak through us. That's the first gift. The second gift he mentions as he goes on, he says to another, in verse 8, the word of knowledge through the same spirit. So the word of wisdom, number one. Number two, the word of knowledge. Now, we talked about that. We know there's a difference between wisdom and knowledge. Again, we need to understand that

If we've been given a gift of the word of knowledge, that it doesn't mean that we know everything or not even really that we know a lot. It's just that God has given us specific insight or knowledge about a situation, a problem, a person, or something going on. It's something very specific. It's knowledge that's gained supernaturally, that cannot be attained by natural means or by natural methods. It's something that God has to reveal.

You know, people trying to hide sin many times are afraid of this gift of knowledge. You know, I'm sure you remember times, you know, where you're involved in sin.

I'm sure you remember times when you were a kid where you're like, man, did God show my parents what I did? Did God show my parents what I was involved in or what happened? Because we're fearful. We're trying to hide and cover up sin. But the word of knowledge can be used in a wide variety of things. In fact, Jesus used this word of knowledge, this gift, in John chapter 4, verses 17 and 18, as he was talking with the Samaritan woman at the well.

As he was talking with her, you might remember that he asked her for a drink and she was quite surprised. She said, hey, Samaritans and Jews, you know, they don't mix and rabbis don't talk to women. What are you doing? What's going on? But Jesus said, hey, if you knew who it was that asked you for a drink, you would ask him for this living water.

that never ends. And she said, really? Well, hey, give me this water and let me know about it so that I don't have to come here and draw from this well every day because it's a lot of hard work and it'd be great if I didn't have to come out here. But Jesus said, no, no, you don't know what you're talking about. And he says, to kind of get her attention, he says, hey, I'll share with you about this, but why don't you go call your husband and come back? And the woman says, oh, you know, I don't have a husband.

And Jesus, speaking by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the Word of Wisdom, said, you're right in saying you don't have a husband. In fact, you've had five husbands, and the man that you're with now is not your husband.

And she was blown away. It says she went away and went into the town and told them, hey, this guy has told me everything I've ever done. He knows everything because God had given him insight. It wasn't something he didn't send his disciples to investigate and do some detective work and figure out and find out her situation. No, he was just there. He was with her. It was in the moment. He was ministering to her and God gave insight.

Jesus filled him with the Spirit, gave him a word of wisdom or word of knowledge, I mean, that he would be able to minister to her. And as a result, she believed in God. So words of knowledge will be used in that way. Also, it's important to note that if it is from God, it will be specific. If it's from God, it will be specific.

It's important to know because there's lots of counterfeits. You know, I could stand up here and say, you know, I sense, you know, I'm getting a word of knowledge. I sense that there's someone here who's having marriage problems.

And it's like, well, hey, if there's any couple in here, there's going to be some application to that. Okay, yeah, every couple has marriage problems. Everybody goes through times and situations. That's not very specific. That's not a word of knowledge. But a word of knowledge will be like Jesus shared. Something very specific to the point that could not be known any other way except for by God revealing it, by His Spirit speaking through. So if it's from God, it will be specific.

When we receive words of knowledge, when God speaks to us about certain things, we need to pray about the right application of it. God has given us these gifts, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, that we would minister to the body of Christ, that we would build it up, not to tear it down.

It would be very easy if God revealed something to me, a word of knowledge. And I said, oh, wow, that person's doing that? Oh, I better call someone. I'll call them he. Yeah, so-and-so's involved in this. Yeah, call four friends. I'm going to call five more because we got to, man, we got to pray for this guy, right? And we say it like that. But it's gossip. It's just slander. It's wrong. It's not right. And God won't use it like that. But words of knowledge will be used like Jesus used it to bring people to him.

To show people that He's real, that He's alive, that He's working. And that's what this woman knew. Hey, there is a God. He knows what's going on. And He's speaking through this guy, so I need to listen to what He's saying. That's what the Samaritan woman discovered. And that's what you and I can discover as well. That God will speak to us. There will be times with a word of knowledge that you might be called, or God might ask you to share it publicly.

as we're in maybe an afterglow setting, as we're spending time with the Lord or seeking the Lord, you might share it out loud that this is what's going on. Now, it doesn't have to be negative about a person, but it could be something that just God gives you insight or knowledge about. He might share it with you. He might give you a word of knowledge that you could share it with someone privately. And you could say, hey, God has showed me this about you and this is what God is saying about this situation or that situation.

Or he might give you a word of knowledge that you can simply pray, that you can intercede for someone, that you can lift them up before the throne and allow God to use you in that way. Words of wisdom, words of knowledge, gifts by God that we would minister to the body of Christ. Well, going on, the third gift, he mentions it in verse 9. He says, "...to another faith by the same Spirit." To another, he says, others are given the gift of faith.

What is this gift of faith? Well, it's important to remember that all faith is a gift. All faith is a gift.

There's different kinds of faith. There's saving faith, which is what brings us to salvation. It's where we say, I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, and I receive it. I receive his forgiveness and the gift that he's given me. But the faith to believe that is a gift. It's not something we muster up on our own. It's not our own strength or our own faith. Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9 clearly tells us that. It says that we have been saved

By grace. Through faith. And then he says, and that, not of yourselves. What's that? That faith. Faith is not of ourselves, but it's a gift of God. And it's not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not something we can do. It's not something we can work up. But all faith is a gift. Saving faith in order to believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins is a gift.

But this gift of faith that he's talking about here is not saving faith because that's a given. In order for us to operate or to use any of these spiritual gifts, we must first be saved. We must be walking in the Spirit. We must have been born again.

So he says this gift of faith then is special faith. It's the faith to do and accomplish the things that God has called us to do. We see this example in Matthew chapter 17 verses 20 through 21. As Jesus coming down from the mountain of transfiguration comes to his disciples and there's a big crowd with him because a father has brought his son who is demon possessed and needed healing but the disciples were not able to heal this boy.

And as Jesus comes down, he comes and shares with them and he says, oh man, oh you of little faith. You know, if you had the faith of a mustard seed, he says, you'd be able to say to this mountain, cast yourself into the sea. And it would. And he was able to cast it out, of course, because he had the gift of faith. He believed God at his word. He believed what God wanted to do.

God gives us the faith that we need as we do the things he's called us to do. It works hand in hand with many of the other gifts as we'll look at the gifts of healing and miracles next. It works hand in hand with that because we need to have faith in order to operate and to use those gifts.

We also need to remember that God loves it. He absolutely loves it. There's no greater joy for God than for us to trust Him, to have faith in Him, to step out in faith and believe Him at His word that He's going to take care of us and provide for us and do the things that He promised. We saw it through the life of Jesus. We've seen it through the life of the disciples in the New Testament. We've seen it with our very own eyes as we've seen Pastor Tom and Joanna move their family to Okinawa.

It wasn't that he just, you know, got a crazy bug in his ear and said, hey, well, let's see what happens. No, no. God has given that man the gift of faith that he believes that God is going to take care of them and provide for them. And he has. And he will continue as they do the work of ministry over there. He had the gift of faith to do that. God will give you and I the gift of faith to accomplish the things he wants us to accomplish.

In that same portion, or that same story, but different portion of scripture, Mark chapter 9, as the boy was healed, it tells us that the father came to Jesus and said, Hey, can you heal him? Is it possible for you to heal him? And Jesus answered in verses 23 and 24 of Mark 9. He says, All things are possible to him who believes. Jesus says,

Yeah, I can heal him. Everything's possible if you believe. And the man replied, and this needs to be our prayer, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. Give me the gift of faith, Lord. Help me to trust you to do the things that you put upon my heart and the things that you call me to do. The gift of faith. It's something that each and every one of us needs to do if we're going to be effective in making disciples for Jesus Christ. The fourth gift that Paul talks about

Gifts of healings. Here in verse 9 he says, Gifts of healings. Now, this is another gift that Jesus used very much. And so did his disciples as he gave them the authority and the ability to be able to do signs and wonders and cast out demons in his name.

But it's also important for us to remember, just like if I get a word of wisdom or a word of knowledge, I don't become the wealth and the reservoir of that wisdom or knowledge. I am at the mercy of the Holy Spirit to move upon me and speak through me. The same thing is with the gift of healings. That it's God's will, it's His working and according to what He wants to do.

Jesus did not heal everybody. Did you know that? He didn't heal everybody. Well, why not? Well, we find in Matthew chapter 13 verse 58, as Jesus was in his hometown, as people there did not believe, he says that he could not do, he did not do mighty works or many mighty works in that area, in that region, because of their unbelief. Unbelief will keep us from experiencing all that God wants us to

to have our experience. Unbelief will keep us from the plan of God. And so, the gifts of healings here are not that I, you know, I've been gifted so I have this healing ministry and I can heal anybody I want to whenever I want to. No, no. That's not how the gift works.

The gift works as we continue on in our ministry, in our callings. We will come in contact with people who need healing. We will come in contact with people whose family and friends need healing. We'll come in contact with a lot of people and have opportunities to pray with them.

Now, we don't see the healing ministries like we saw in the Old Testament, but we don't have that same office anymore, the same office of the apostles that we saw or the prophets as we saw in the Old Testament. The Lord's working differently. As he said, there's different gifts, different ministries, different activities. He hasn't done that recently. Now, not to say that he couldn't or wouldn't,

But he is still in the business of healing. He's still in the business of using us to pray for people and healing them. And so we need to ask for this gift. As we're

serving within our ministries as we're doing and doing the things that we're called to do, we should pray for this gift. As people ask us to pray with them because they're not feeling well, hey, that's biblical. James tells us, call the elders of the body of Christ or the church and have them come anoint you with oil and pray for you and see if God will heal you, see if God will do a work. Pray for the gifts of healing because we need to step out in faith and ask God to do a work. And He will.

Doesn't mean in every instance, of course not. It's according to His will, according to His plan. But it's biblical for us to do that. We pray for them. If they get better, He prays the Lord. If not, doesn't mean that God doesn't want to. It doesn't mean that really anything other than it's not His time, it's not His will.

And so we need to pray for this gift and ask for God, believing in faith. Again, this one works hand in hand with the gift of faith because in order for us to ask God to heal, we need to have faith. We need to trust Him and believe that He can and will heal those who are sick. The fifth gift that Paul talks about, working of miracles.

We've seen words of wisdom, words of knowledge. We've seen faith. We've seen healings. Now we see the working of miracles. Now, like healings, it doesn't mean that if God gives you a gift of working of miracles that you can always do any kind of miracle that you ever want.

But it just means that you can do the miracles that He empowers you and He enables you to do. You don't become Joe the miracle worker. Here comes Joe the miracle worker. Alright, hey, and if you are Joe the miracle worker, I have a car. I need you to look at it. It's right over part out here. You can take a look at it, please, miracle worker. No, it's not like that. You have the choice and the option to do whatever you want. No. No.

But it's, again, God using you. You allowing God to use you to work miracles for his glory, to accomplish his purposes. Demonstrated in the life of Jesus? Oh, many times. Many times. You might remember the story of the loaves and the fish. As he fed 5,000 people from five loaves of bread and two fish. Not only that, but there was baskets upon baskets upon baskets left over of food.

A miracle, a working of a miracle to accomplish God's purposes. Jesus walked upon water. He calmed the storms. He did very many miracles to demonstrate and to authenticate his ministry and his message. God will use us to perform working of miracles as we're accomplishing his plan and his purpose.

God does miracles all the time, guys. He really does. And he still gives this gift. This is something real and something available. God is in the business of doing great and exciting things. It doesn't make you the great magician, but it does make you used by God. God will use you. And when it's done for real, it'll be done in humility. It'll be done in the power and the understanding that it's God who does the work, that it has nothing to do with me.

So again, we should pray for this gift. We should believe God and trust Him to do wonderful things.

For the last couple Wednesdays, I've quoted this portion of Scripture because I think it's so beautiful and it just gets me excited. Psalm chapter 72 verse 18, as we looked at it a few weeks ago, tells us that God only does wondrous things. That's all He does. If God is involved, there's going to be wondrous things taking place. There's going to be miracles. It's not an if, it's not a when, sorry, it's not an if or when.

You know what I mean. It is going to happen. He's going to do wondrous things. And so pray. Ask God that as you're doing the things that He wants you to do, as you're involved in the ministries He's called you to be involved in, as you're being the person or the parent or the business person that you've been called to be, look for God. Ask Him to use you to perform miracles so that you can be mighty and renowned. No. So that people can know the name of Jesus.

that glory could be given to him and people might come to know him as our Savior and Lord. Working of miracles, gifts of healing. Phenomenal? Oh yes, absolutely. Absolutely. But God is still in the business of doing those things. The sixth thing he tells us about is the gift of prophecy. The gift of prophecy found in verse 10. He says, What is prophecy? Well,

Chances are when you think of prophecy, you think of prophets like in the Old Testament. You see Elijah and Elisha or Isaiah and Ezekiel and those guys who had these great predictions of what was coming in the future and did these wonderful works. But that's not really what this gift of prophecy is talking about. It's not necessarily telling the future, but it's telling or declaring the truths of God.

If I think of a modern day prophet, I think of someone like Billy Graham. Someone who has been very faithful to share the truths of God to this nation, to many nations in fact. That's all that it is. It can be the foretelling, the telling and the predicting of the future. It might concern those things, but it also might concern things that are happening now. It's what God wants to say about any situation regardless of what time it happened or is going to happen.

It's what the Lord has to say about your life and my life, about our country, about our nation, about our church or our fellowship. Prophecy is what God has to say, and it's sharing that with those around us. Now again, if God gives us the gift of prophecy, it doesn't make us a fortune teller. We can't start, you know, like I said, an 800 hotline where, call me up, I'll tell you the future. No, that's not what the gift is for, and that's not how it's used. But as the Spirit leads...

As we have afterglows, as we spend time with one another, God will give us insight, things that he wants us to say. And it might be, and it very well could be, about the future. You know, there's been many times and many ways where God has demonstrated or put it upon someone's heart to pray for you or for me and say, this is what God has shown me that he wants to do with your life. Words of prophecy, things that only God could know, but this is what God wants to say.

Now, this is an important gift. In fact, if you look at chapter 14, verse 1, just right there a couple chapters over, Paul tells us, hey, pursue love and desire spiritual gifts, but notice this, especially that you may prophesy. Why? Well, because the gifts are designed, the gifts are from God, so that the body of Christ, the church, you and I, my

might be built up and encouraged, might be drawn closer to the Lord. And the gift of prophecy is exactly that, because there's nothing greater that we need than to hear what God has to say. That's what we need. We need that more than healings. We need that more than miracles.

We need to hear and know what God has to say. And so Paul says, earnestly desire that you would prophesy, that you would be able to share the words of God, to share what God has to say and speak about a certain situation. This is a gift that we can use, not only in a church setting, but at all times, anywhere. We need to be ready to allow God to speak through us and share with those around us what He has to say about the things going on.

Seventh, the gift of discerning of spirits. Discerning of spirits found in verse 10. He says to another, discerning of spirits. What is the discerning of spirits? Well, 1 John chapter 4 verse 1 tells us, John instructs us and commands us not to believe every spirit. Not to simply understand or believe and accept everything that comes of our path. But he says, test the spirits. Test the spirits.

Test the spirits. Get rid of the false. Hold on to the true. Why? Well, he says that there's many false prophets that have gone into the world. There's many people who are leading people astray. There's many people who will declare to you things that are not real. And if we put our faith in anything other than Jesus Christ, we will be led astray. If as the gifts are being exercised, there's things that are going on that are not glorifying God...

It will be damaging to the body of Christ and not edifying, not what it's meant to be. That's what the gift of discerning of spirits is all about. It's to test, really, all of the above, all the gifts that we've mentioned, all the gifts that we've been looking at, words of wisdom, words of knowledge, miracles and healings, to test and see, is this of the Holy Spirit or is this of another spirit? Is this from God or is this from something else?

We saw this with Moses and the magicians, didn't we? As the book of Exodus, Moses is sent to the Pharaoh to ask him to give up, to let go the people of God. And God sends him with signs and wonders. He throws down his staff, it becomes a snake. And Pharaoh says, whatever. Calls in his magicians, they throw down their staffs and they become snakes. What are those? Lying signs and wonders. God is not the only one

powerful force in this world. Oh yes, he's the most powerful force. But until he comes to rule and reign, there will be deceiving spirits and lying spirits, lying signs and wonders. We learn about them in 2 Thessalonians 2, verses 9 and 10, where it tells us that when the Antichrist comes, when the guy comes who's going to unite the world and lead the world against Christ, when he comes, he will come with power

the same workings, the same dealings as Satan works and deals. And what is that? Well, it goes on to explain that it's through lying signs and wonders, through demonstrations of power. Hey, miracles in and of themselves are not enough. The things that they say and the things that they do must, must, absolutely must be in accordance with God's word.

That's the final decision. That's the final line. The miracles and the phenomenal, that's not enough to prove that someone is from God. We need to know and understand what God's word says. The discerning of spirits is exactly for that. That we might know and understand if something is from God or not. And we do need to ask for this gift. We do need to ask so that we are not deceived, that we are not led astray. This gift has two purposes primarily. Number one, to test the other gifts.

To be a testimony if something is from God or not. The gifts, the wonders, the signs, the things that take place. But number two, to protect us against deceivers, those who would lead us astray, those who would rip us off,

You know, many times as we come in contact with people, you might get an uneasy feeling. You might just sense like, man, something's not right. And it might be that God is giving you discerning of spirits, that he's giving you insight that someone's up to no good or vice versa. He might give you confirmation. Hey, this is from me. This is okay. This is something that I am doing, God might say to you, so that you can know what is of God and what is not.

Again, we need to pray for this gift and ask God to reveal to us what he's doing around us. That we'd be able to have discernment to understand what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying. The eighth gift that he talks about in verse 10, he says, to another different kinds of tongues. Different kinds of tongues. Now, what is he talking about here? What are tongues? I mean, I know we have one, but beyond that, what is he talking about? What is the gift of tongues?

The gift of tongues is speaking to God in a language you don't understand. Now, why would you do that? Or how would that even make sense? How does that work? Well, it's a spiritual thing. It's a gift from God. It's being empowered by the Holy Spirit to

to communicate with God, to draw close to God, to have fellowship and communion with God in a language that your mind, your intellect can't understand. But it is edifying to the Spirit. It is edifying to you as a believer, as a Christian. In 1 Corinthians 14, verse 14, Paul says, If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is unfruitful. I don't understand what I'm praying. I don't understand what I'm saying to the Lord.

but it's beneficial to me, to my spirit. It's edifying to me and it draws me close to the Lord. Now he says there's different kinds of tongues. Well, what kind are there? Well, in chapter 13, verse 1 of 1 Corinthians, he tells us, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am nothing. What kinds of tongues? Well, there's tongues of men and there's tongues of angels. As God gives the gift of tongues to believers,

They speak in a language that they don't understand. But that language isn't just made up. It's one of these two. It's either a tongue of angels. It's a language that the angels speak, a heavenly language. Or it's a language of men.

A language of man. It might be a known language, just not to the person speaking it. And it's been used many times as a testimony for the glory of God in that way. You might remember Acts chapter 2 as we saw the first instance of tongues. As the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room and they began to speak in tongues and it says that everybody heard them in their own language. It was a miracle of God, a working of tongues. Now, we're going to study this more in chapter 14.

But for us this morning, it's enough to know that it is a real gift for today. That God will give us the ability to communicate with Him in a language that we don't understand as He gives us the gift of tongues. Now, Pastor Chuck, again, in his book, Living Water, shares about a woman that he knew, or I'm not sure if he still knows her, but was involved in his ministry and

And she had the gift of tongues and they would have afterglows just like we're going to have one tonight. And during that time, she used her gift and she spoke out in tongues. Now, as she was speaking in tongues, she didn't know it, but the language that she was speaking was French. She didn't know French, she never studied French, but there was a woman there, an unbeliever who had come to the study and

who did speak French. And when she understood what was going on, when she understood that the lady didn't speak French or know French, she gave glory to God and she accepted the Lord because she knew that was something only God could do. It's a real gift. And it sounds crazy maybe, and maybe if it's the first time you've heard of it, you go, I don't know, that just sounds too weird. Well, God's a big God.

And it's not about our strength or our power or our mind, but it's about His Spirit moving through us. Tongues, the gift of tongues, is allowing your spirit to communicate by the Holy Spirit with God. And it will always be in that direction. It will always be prayer, praise, or worship to God.

from us to God, speaking to God. It will never be, you know, speaking in tongues to one another or anything like that. It will always be directed as a prayer of praise to God. Paul outlines that and tells us that very clearly in chapter 14, which we'll see in a couple weeks. So you might say, well, why pray when you don't understand? Why would you use that gift? Well, God understands. And as Paul explains later, it edifies the spirit. It builds us up and draws us closer to

to our Savior. It brings us in tune with the Holy Spirit and what God is saying to us. The gift of tongues. It's an interesting gift and it's one many people have a lot of questions on. And if you do, man, I'd love to talk with you afterwards or you can check out the book or you can talk to the person next to you and just say, hey, what is up with this weird gift? But it's beneficial to the body of Christ. It is. The last gift, the ninth thing,

Interpretation of tongues, he tells us. To another, the interpretation of tongues. What is this? Well, it goes hand in hand with speaking in tongues. In fact, Paul outlines and explains for us that in chapter 14, that in a church service, as we're gathered here this morning, the gift of tongues has no place in a service like that unless it's accompanied by this interpretation of tongues.

Paul goes on to explain very clearly in chapter 14 that if I speak in tongues, he says, nobody will understand me. You can't say amen to it. You can't agree with it. It's just, it's unfruitful for you because you can't understand. You don't know what's being said or what's going on. It's like you're a foreigner.

He says, so it must be accompanied by this interpretation of tongues. That people, if it's within a body, if it's within a church service, that people would be able to understand and be blessed. And so, not only does God give us the gift of tongues, but he also gives the gift of interpretation. So that if the gift of tongues is used in an afterglow setting or in a setting like this, that the rest of the body, the rest of the church, could understand what the speaker is saying.

Now, Pastor Chuck describes it this way. He says, So it doesn't translate one word and try to make it exact, but it's giving the sense, the understanding of what that person was saying. Now again, if an interpretation is given, then...

then it will always be directed towards God. It will always be a prayer or a praise to God. Well, why? Well, because we know that tongues, as Paul will explain, is directed to God always. And so the interpretation would follow that it as well will be directed to God because it's what the person was saying, the prayer that they were praying, the worship that they were giving to God.

Nine gifts that Paul lists here. Again, just a sample really of what God has given to us. There's many more gifts that we'll continue to study and if you pick up the book or study on your own, you'll discover that God has given us a variety of tools, a variety of things that he wants to enable us, empower us supernaturally to accomplish his work, to do the work of ministry, to disciple people, to bring people to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

to work wonderful things in ministry. God has called you and I into the ministry. It's not just for the pastors. It's not just for the super spiritual or those who have been saved for many, many years. But each and every one of us, God has a purpose and a calling if we're part of the body of Christ.

If we've been born again, he has a calling. And he gives us these gifts. He empowers us by the Holy Spirit as he wills. That's what verse 11 says, that he distributes to each one individually as he wills.

as He wills. It's not our will, it's not our desire, but it's as He wills. But He'll give us these gifts as we do the things that He's called us to do. So let me encourage you this morning. If you are born again, if you are a believer, fulfill your calling. Be involved in ministry. Be involved in fellowship. Be involved encouraging those around you and using the gifts that God will give you. He might give you different gifts at different times.

He might give you a word of knowledge tonight, but a word of wisdom next week. He might give you a word of healings one time and a word of working of miracles another time. God hasn't said, hey, this is the only gift you get and be happy with it. No, he says, look, I give you these things. As you do my work, I'm going to gift you. I'm going to prepare you. I'm going to give you and enable you to do those things. So let me encourage you to use those gifts.

You know, this evening, as we will continue for the next couple of weeks, we're going to have an afterglow. What is that? Well, we have our regular service at 6 o'clock. I encourage you to come and join us. And then after the service, we'll spend time in prayer, we'll spend time in worship, and give God the opportunity to speak to us through these gifts, to operate and to use the words of knowledge and words of wisdom, words of prophecy in tongues. God wants to do a work.

And we just want to give Him an opportunity. Now, we can't say, well, there's going to be some phenomenal things happening and you can't wait. You've got to come. Well, hey, we don't know what God wants to do. But we want to give Him the opportunity. He uses the gifts within the body as we gather together in what we call an afterglow. But it's not the only place He uses them. You know, as a parent, you've been given charge to build your house, as we looked at this morning. And you're going to need supernatural empowerment by the Holy Spirit

to accomplish what God wants you to do in raising those children. As a husband and wife, you need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be the husband or wife that you've been called to be, to be the employee that you've called to be, to be part of the family that you've called to be a part of, to be at the grocery store where you're at and you bump into someone. You're going to need the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the empowering of the Holy Spirit in order to work the work that God wants to do, in order to fulfill the ministry that He's called you to do.

Let me encourage you, step out in faith. Use these gifts. Rely upon the Holy Spirit. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are interesting because we're very fearful of them many times. But as we mature, as we grow, as we step out and trust God and believe God, we see God do wonderful things. I want to see God do wonderful things. I want to be a part of His work and be a part of what God wants to do in the lives of the people around me. And so I ask God for these gifts.

I ask him that he would empower me. Not so that I would be high and lifted up. Not so that I could be prideful and say, well, look at the great work I'm doing. No. So that I could be used. I could be a part. You and I could be a part of the wonderful work of God. He only does wondrous things and he calls us to be involved in those things. He calls us and he asks us, hey, will you let me use you?

You don't have to have some super special qualifications or anything like that. Hey, I'll give you everything you need. I'll gift you. I'll empower you with my Holy Spirit. Will you be involved? Maybe you're here this morning and you're not born again. Maybe you can't say, yeah, I've accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. In fact, maybe you don't even know really what that means. But let me tell you one thing. We can't get to heaven. We can't have fellowship with God. We can't experience the work of God without accepting Jesus.

that we're sinners, without understanding that Jesus Christ died on the cross to forgive us, to cleanse us, that we could have perfect fellowship with him and that we could take part, you and I could take part in the work of God by simply receiving him as our Savior and Lord, by being born again. I'd encourage you this morning, if you are born again, use your gifts, step out in faith. But if you're not, you need to get saved. You need to accept Jesus Christ and allow him to be the Lord of your life. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we do thank you this morning for your word and the gifts that we've looked at this morning, God, I pray. Lord, as brothers and sisters here, we just ask, God, that you would use us, God. That you would empower us, that you would fill us afresh and anew and baptize us with your Holy Spirit, God. That you would gift us, Lord. You would give us these gifts that we would be able to accomplish the things that you want us to accomplish. God, give us a vision. Lord, give us a desire to be able to accomplish the things that you want us to accomplish.

to minister, to reach out, to share with those around us, God. And Lord, I pray that you would equip us with everything that we need. Lord, that you would give us words of wisdom and knowledge. Lord, that you would give us faith. Lord, that you would give us the gifts of healing and miracles. God, that you would give us the gifts of prophecy and tongues and interpretation of tongues. God, may we be using all of those gifts in our lives in this body, God. Lord, fill us now. Empower us, we pray. And Lord, if there's any here that don't know you,

Lord, I pray that you would speak to them, that you would show them how much you love them, God, and what you've given to them, the precious gift and the price that you paid, that we could have fellowship with you, that we could take part in this work that you're doing, that we can be empowered by your Holy Spirit. Thank you, Jesus. If there's anyone here that would like to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord, you can just pray this prayer in your heart after me. Lord Jesus, I know I'm a sinner. I confess it to you. Lord, I need help.

I can't live this life on my own. I can't be a good person on my own. But God, thank you for your gift. Thank you for your son dying on the cross. Because through your forgiveness and through your love, I can have fellowship with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I can be empowered by the Holy Spirit. So Lord, forgive me now. Fill me now. Change me now, I pray. I receive your gift in Jesus' name. Amen.

We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.