Spiritual Gifts Part 1: full transcript and answers

▶ 0:00 The next three chapters of First Corinthians is so vital to Christians. It is so important that I cannot stress enough how you need to understand these next three chapters. And today we’re going to be looking at the subject of spiritual expressions. Spiritual is non-carnal. Spiritual has nothing to do with humans. It is separate from humans. Humans are limited in what they can do. But the spirit is not limited. 1 Corinthians 12, he’s going to talk about spiritual manifestations. Okay, spiritual expressions. Verse one.

▶ 0:53 Now, concerning spiritual gifts, you notice the word gift is an italics. That means it’s not in the verse. It was added to the verse. And this is one of the things that us Pentecostals made a big mistake about for decades. That word gift there is not there. They added it trying to help us understand. And so people just preached it like it was that’s the way it was. But it’s not. A better word would be manifestations or expressions as you will see later. [clears. He says, “I don’t throat] want you to be ignorant of spiritual things.” You see, and God doesn’t want us to be ignorant of spiritual things. You know, getting saved is just the beginning of things.

▶ 1:46 God has things for his church, to be active in his church, to be manifested in his church that we need to get out of our eternal life mentality and get in to this part. Amen. Now, and he also says in verse two, you know that you were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as you were led. Okay? He says, I don’t want you to be ignorant of spiritual things, but I want to remind you that before you came to Christ, you were spiritually dumb. So don’t think too highly of yourself. It is amazing how people get saved and all of a sudden they think they got the wisdom of the spiritual world. And Paul is really deflating them here.

▶ 2:37 You know, the Bible says when you follow idols that can’t how don’t have eyes to see, ears to hear, a mouth to speak, and they they don’t have feet to walk. [clears throat] He says they that follow them become what? Just like them. And so he says, “You dumbbells followed those dumb idols. So don’t think you’re so smart concerning spiritual things. How many can raise your hands and boy that’s me. See that’s the first thing I need to understand spiritual things. And Paul is really emphasizing this. He said you thought you were being led into spiritual things. You ever you know as Pentecostals are always saying well I was led by the spirit and we do some of the dumbest things led by the spirit. And this is what Paul is addressing. You know, let me get your attention. Corinthians, Paul is saying, “You are ignorant and you are dumb concerning spiritual things, and I don’t want you to be ignorant anymore.” So, he’s talking to the right guy.

▶ 3:38 How about you? [clears Now the third verse, throat] he makes it very clear that spiritual things can only be initiated and performed by the spirit. He’s going to make it very clear. And this is a problem with us Pentecostals and charismatic groups is we force things. We pretended things instead of the spirit initiating and performing the thing and we called it the spirit movie. And then you know the Methodists and Presbyterians and Baptists and so forth, they had a problem with that. They could see the phoniness. And then they would challenge it and we would just ignore it and just do our thing.

▶ 4:35 Now, I’ve lived a long time through this. See, my parents took me to Baptist churches, old regular Baptist, Mountain Baptist, American Baptist, Missionary Baptist, and Independent Churches, Assembly of God, Church of God. Man, I’ve been through the smorggas board of churches growing up in a Christian home because they were searching. But let me tell you something. When they gave me a choice of what church I wanted to go to, I always chose a spiritfilled touch because they were trying at least to find God, to find that spirit and let the spirit move. And they hit it sometimes and you could feel it. You you man, it was powerful. And the other places it didn’t come very often.

▶ 5:27 God had to do sovereignly because they were never looking for him. So God would just show up every once in a while sovereignly. And I’ve met with God in Baptist churches and Presbyterian where God just sovereignly come. They weren’t looking for him. He just did it because he’s God. You with me? [clears throat] He says this, “Wherefore I give you to understand. No man speaking by the spirit of God caused Jesus a cursed. He says number one, anybody that says they’re speaking by the spirit of God will never say anything bad about Jesus. They will never say anything contradictory to the word of Jesus. For instance, the Muslims say that Jesus did not die on the cross because you can’t kill God.

▶ 6:21 And the Bible says he did die on the cross. It was prophesied for thousands of years that he would die on the cross. And in the New Testament, it’s true. Jesus said, “Nobody can take my life. I lay it down.” See, God has power to lay down his life and pick it up again. Are you there? So, see, when a church says that, a religious group says that, they’re not speaking by the spirit. You understand? And if it’s not the spirit speaking, then I don’t need it. Hallelujah. I don’t care how big they are. The Mormons say that Jesus and Satan were brothers. Now, how can Satan be Jesus’s brother when Jesus created everything?

▶ 7:20 Huh? You see, that’s not the spirit talking. And if it’s not the spirit talking, then we got a problem. I don’t need it. And Paul is saying everything spiritual is initiated and performed by the spirit not people. So that tells me Muhammad wrote that himself that God can’t die and that Joseph Smith wrote that himself. And I don’t need people giving me their opinions. I need God. And his Amen. Spirit revealing things to me. Can I hear an amen? [clears. He says, “No man throat] can say that Jesus is Lord, the supreme authority, the supreme power but by the Holy Ghost.” You see, now [clears we go to Matthew.

▶ 8:19 Throat] Give you an example of this. Matthew 16:15. Jesus [clears throat] asked those around him, “Who am I?” Okay. Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Now watch this. Jesus said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, Peter, but my father which is in heaven.” You didn’t say this on your own. You got this directly from the Revelation of the spirit of God, God himself. That’s why you can say it. Do you understand that, church? Hallelujah. See, we need the spirit involved in everything. Does Paul have your attention? Let me give you another example.

▶ 9:13 Luke 6:46. They come to him and said, “Lord, Lord.” He says, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and what? Do not the things I say.” If you were saying that by the spirit of God in you, you would be backing it up by obeying me, but you’re saying I’m Lord, and it’s just your human mind saying it. Romans 10:9, if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be what? Saved. Now, I and all of my salvation soul winners, we basically use this scripture. Why? If we can get them to say Jesus is Lord when they invite Christ into their life, it’s quick to see if they’ve been born again or not.

▶ 10:10 See, because the spirit’s going to give them the authority, the the motive to say it. Are you with me? And that’s the test of being born again. See, Jesus said, “You got to be born again.” Born of what? The spirit. See, even in salvation, that spirit’s got to be involved. And this is the problem in many Christians in America. They have a bad birthing. The spirit wasn’t involved in their birthing. I mean, Paul knows what he’s talking about. You can’t just get water baptized and get a baptism or certificate and just put your roll on the church. That doesn’t mean you’ve been born again at all. You’re born again when that spirit comes and he lifts that load of sin and you’re free from that guilt.

▶ 11:02 And you know that night that that I gave my heart to God, I knew I was a different person. Something was going on in me that wasn’t going on before. I didn’t know at the time it was the Holy Ghost, [clears throat] but I knew it wasn’t me. Now, now he’s going to go into three spiritual areas with differences in each area. Verse four, how many areas? Three. And every area has diversities, has different things going on, varieties in them. God is a God of variety.

▶ 11:53 Okay. So, first he says there are diversities of gifts, assistance, uh abilities, helps, aids, and it’s the same spirit that does this. So, if I have a gift of the spirit and the spirit is non-human, it’s supernatural. I have what? Supernatural gift. I have a supernatural ability beyond my human. Do you get that? See, I can’t think in my human mind this stuff. It has to be the Holy Ghost doing it. So far so good. That’s one area. The second area there are diversities of service but the same Lord.

▶ 12:48 Who am I serving? The Lord. I pledge allegiance to the lamb. We’ve been singing it till it’s coming out of your ears. Why? We need to make him Lord of our life and do what he says. Hallelujah. Now, what’s the word service? Ministry. Just doing. Uh Haley was in here this morning serving in the kitchen, chopping up vegetables. That’s one area. Somebody else was vacuuming the carpet and stuff. See, that’s service. Duh. That’s spiritual. Yeah. First comes the natural, then the spiritual. If you don’t have a heart for God’s natural house, you’ll never get a heart for his spiritual house. If you don’t care of where you come to church or not or whether church is clean or or you know anything going on, you will never have a heart and a cure for the spiritual her church, the spiritual house, the people, because first comes the natural.

▶ 13:57 Do you understand? That’s why when I was a young Christian, I said, ‘ God, whatever you want me to do, I’m I’m willing to do it. I’m going to make you Lord of my life. And the first thing that he says, just do what the pastor asked you to do. I’ve shared this with you before. I go to church and I told the pastor, you know, do you need help around here? He said, oh yes, I need to go down and tear down this building and bring the lumber so we can build rooms in the basement. Man, I thought for sure he’s going to ask me to preach. At that point in my life, that’s what I thought. Oh man, he’s he’s seen my hunger for God. He going to ask me to preach. Didn’t didn’t ask me to preach at all. Thank God. I’d have failed and it was natural things and I did it and it was a lot of ushering as a needs to be done in the house of God. It’s serving, you know, taking care of the books, doing the accounting.

▶ 14:49 There’s all kinds of thing, the maintenance, the lawns. There’s all kinds of things that’s serving. And it is spiritual manifestation, expression because you’re doing it from the motivation of the spirit. And honestly, church, we need more of that kind of ministry than we need quote unquote the big men of God because it takes a lot of natural things to get things done in a church. But most churches, people just come, put in their time, punch their clock, and leave. They never ask to be involved. They never ask to help. And if they are asked to help, they’re too busy for one reason or another. And so they miss out on serving. Hallelujah. I’m going to prove it to you. [clears throat] Luke 10:40.

▶ 15:40 Martha was cumbered about by much serving, ministering. Now, what was she doing? Those of us who know the story, she was cooking, cleaning, washing clothes, taking care of Jesus and his disciples. She wasn’t preaching, prophesying, speaking in tongues, or anything. She was just doing what needed to be done to keep these guys fed, cleaned, and groomed, and whatever. Are you there? Now in I’m sorry I clicked it but Acts six the apostle said we will give oursel to what? Prayer and the ministry of the word. See that’s another area. See right now I am ministering. I am serving you by giving you the word of God. How many generals in an army? Very few.

▶ 16:33 One or two. Huh? Depend. Yeah. And how many soldiers? Thousands. You get my point? We don’t need a lot of super saints. We need a lot of regular recruits doing their job. Amen. And knowing they are important, knowing they are v vital to winning the war. [clears throat] Operations, there are diversities of operations. Operations means effects, results, the outcome. It’s only used twice in the Bible and both are in this chapter and it’s used down there in verse 12, [clears throat] the working of miracles, the results of miracles, supernatural things. When Jesus calmed the storm, the result was the storm was calm. When Jesus uh walked on water, the result was he the water supported him.

▶ 17:28 You see, there are effects [clears and all we ever throat] talk about is nine gifts of the spirit in here in the Pentecostal areas. But it is the same God which works all in all. Now you notice the trinity is listed in these verses. Did you notice that? The spirit, the son Jesus, and God. In verse 11, Paul said Jesus is under submission to God and the man is under submission to Christ. Here’s some effects. People wanted to get under Peter’s shadow. Now, why do you think they wanted to just let his shadow touch them? Because there was some kind of an effect. I mean, ain’t nobody chasing me down to get in my shadow. Now, see these this is above these little spiritual gifts we’re talking about.

▶ 18:31 This is powerful stuff. You remember Peter was asleep in prison. They’re going to cut his head off the next day. He’s asleep and he’s so comfortable sleeping sleeping. The angel came in, opened the gates, opened the doors, made all this noise, and had to wake him up. If most of you were going to die tomorrow, you wouldn’t be sleeping. You’d be calling to 24-hour hotline. You’d be calling, you know, JB Farball to pray for you. I mean, man, you’d be pacing the floor. Oh, what an old Lord. Lord, this isn’t fair. This isn’t fair. My goodness, you promised to bless me and here I’m going to die tomorrow. But see, he had the effectiveness of God in him. That peace of God that passes understanding and he just went to sleep.

▶ 19:25 Isn’t that powerful? The church was praying for him. By the way, they were doing what they’re supposed to do. And the angel came and let him go. And when Peter came to the house and said, “Hey, I’m Peter. You know, I’m out of jail.” They said, “No, no, you’re in jail. You’re in prison.” He said, “No, no, it’s me. It’s really me.” Now, they’re praying for him to get out. They’re praying for in deliverance and they ain’t got enough faith to believe it’s him. And the point of that is you don’t need a lot of faith. Just obey. You may doubt it. Just just pray. And the effect of that church praying brought the angel and delivered Peter. So see, prayer is important. What we did this morning is very important. You may be embarrassed about it. It may be against your upbringing, but let me tell you, that stuff is vital for the spirit to move in people’s lives and do the work that he needs to do.

▶ 20:22 Well, don’t embarrass me. God’s going to embarrass you. If prayer is is your embarrassment, then you’re going to be embarrassed because he ain’t going to do things outside of his laws. See, God has laws and he follows them. See, we think he changes them for us. He doesn’t. He follows his own laws. Paul’s praise opened the prison doors. Here’s Paul in prison. And he’s down there praising God and worshiping God. Hallelujah. Praise God. And the prison shook. The doors were open and all the captives were set free. See here, prayer and praise brought what? An effect, an operation, an outcome. And it’s not a gift. It is a result of obeying God.

▶ 21:17 And then God gave them a tremendous outcome. Do we need effects in the church? Do we need operations in the church? Beside the gifts, do we need the operations? Absolutely. Hallelujah. And we keep doing what we did this morning, we’ll get back to having a spiritfilled le church. I guarantee you. And people’s lives will be changed. They’ll either run from God or they’ll run to God. There’s only two choices. And people that aren’t here for God, they will run. If they’re here, like I told the youth Friday night, if you’re here for your hot dog and your soda and to socialize, you’re here for the wrong reason.

▶ 22:16 And if our services on Friday are geared for socializing only and all that, we are missing it. Okay? When I led youth, I wasn’t there to please youth. I was there to change youth and the services were geared for change. Hallelujah. While it was geared for youth, you know, the Bible says, “They that hate him will flee before him.” You see, when they’re running from Jesus, don’t feel bad when they don’t like what you do. See, when Jesus shows up, there’s people that don’t really want him to be real. Cuz he’s going to ask them to do things that are embarrassing to them against what they want to do.

▶ 23:19 And the sorcerer was made blind. Remember Jesus said, “God smite you with blindness.” The sorcerer was made blind. There’s no gift of making people blind in the Bible. That was a result of the operations of God. See, Paul had availed himself. And because he availed himself, then God used him when he needed to use him. You got it? Now, this seventh verse is very important. But the manifestation, the expression, the demonstration of the spirit. Now he’s summing up just what he said. There are three areas of manifestation. Gifts, operations, and serving. And he says all three of these expressions of the spirit is given to how many people?

▶ 24:17 Every man. But I need Oral Roberts to be my prayer guy. I need Billy Graham. I need No, every person can have these manifestations when God is manifesting. But we’ve been taught ever since I was in the church world that the man of God or the woman of God, the pastor, the evangelist got to do it. And Paul says we can all experience the manifestations of the spirit. Can I hear an amen? Yeah. Give God a clap offering. He didn’t bring you into the kingdom to make you a wimp. He brought you into kingdom to give you an inheritance that people aren’t preaching for to that you can have.

▶ 25:22 Now verse eight, he says to one of all the people, see he’s talking to the Corinthians, all of you can do it. To one is given by the spirit. Who’s it given by? The spirit. You can’t fabricate these things. You can’t emotionally conjure them up. They have to be initiated and worked by the spirit. And us Pentecostals need to get that through our head. Can I hear an amen? To another of the same sort. The white anothers are the same sort. The yala anothers are a different sort, a different kind. You got to understand that.

▶ 26:15 Very important. I didn’t understand this for years. To another of the same kind, the word of knowledge by the same spirit. Now, let me give you an example of the word of wisdom and the word of knowledge. And it’s really going to go against everything you’ve been taught in Pentecost. But I go by the Bible. Steven was a long-winded preacher like I was. And at the end of his message, I mean, he went to Abraham and showed how Abraham was mistreated. He went to uh Joseph, how he was mistreated. He went to uh Israel going into Egypt and how they were mistreated. And Israel coming out of Egypt and how they mistreated God. And all the way to Solomon in his temple and Solomon fell away, you know, with having so many wives, they led him astray and all that.

▶ 27:08 After he gives this big long record of the history of the Jewish people, then he says this is the point. They were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which Steven spoke. See, he had a word of what? Wisdom. And what he was telling them at the end is you resist the Holy Ghost just like the forefathers resisted the Holy Ghost. You resist the Holy Ghost just like Joseph’s brothers did and mistreated him. You resist the Holy Ghost just like the people around Abraham did and mistreated him. You resist the Holy Ghost just like Israel in the wilderness. You resisting the Holy Ghost just like those people did. Now, that’s a word of wisdom. And he got his point across and they just loved it and got converted that day, right?

▶ 28:02 No. You think a word of wisdom is going to bring you flattery all the time? They stoned him. They killed him. They didn’t want to be told they were resisting God. They were resisting the Holy Ghost. They want to be told that boy, they’re people of faith. They’re God’s chosen people. Is a lot of American Christians the same way. Yeah. They just want to be told they’re going to heaven. They want to be told they are Christians and they resist the Holy Ghost. That’s the word of wisdom. Now, let’s look at a word of knowledge. Luke 177. Here’s [clears throat] John the Baptist. And it says that John the Baptist prophesying over John the Baptist that he’s going to give know the knowledge of what?

▶ 28:56 Salvation unto his people by the what? Remission of sin. Now this had not been revealed before but it was in the Old Testament. And John came with that fresh Revelation but it was the knowledge of the Old Testament. It was the knowledge of what God was going to do. Amen. And so when I’m sharing with people to win them to Christ, I’m giving them the word of knowledge. When I’m sharing people about the baptism of the Holy Ghost, I’m giving them the word of knowledge. These are things I know from God opening the word up to me and it’s backed up by the Bible. That’s knowledge. Me telling Mr. Barnes that he’s got a hole in his heart is not a word of knowledge. You know, when I was a young Christian, every every believer was running around in Pentecostal areas looking through you, man.

▶ 30:01 Oh, I see you. You’re not good. You got man, you got faults in your life. Boy, God’s going to judge you. Everybody, and that turns the other churches off because they know better. Are you there? And even today in these circles, you got these quote unquote spiritual, oh, God gave me a word for you about God. What’s wrong with God coming to them? Amen. He says all of us could have these things. Hallelujah. Now to another of a different kind, a different area, [clears faith, gifts throat] of healing, plural gifts, another the working of miracles, and another prophecy.

▶ 31:02 Now, these are all under the same kind of spirit. They’re all the same spirit, but a different expression of the Holy Spirit. Got it? Now, we I’ll get into the discerning of spirits. Now, listen. I I’ I’ve been in Pentecost ever since I got saved. Okay? I got saved in Assembly God Church. I’m a tongue-talking Pentecostal. I mean, man, I am authentic. Like Paul said about being a Pharisee, man. I am authentic Pentecostal. And I would hear people saying, “God gave me all nine gifts.” And of course, I read my Bible right off the bat. I mean, in one year, I told you I knew more than the people in the congregation knew because I studied and read. They didn’t know beans.

▶ 31:53 They just sat there and listened to the preacher every day. And I learned. And number one, I knew God doesn’t go around giving gifts to noviceses because I read over there where Paul says, “Don’t give these things to noviceses. They’ll be lifted up with pride.” They got to go through the growing process, the training thing before God’s going to give you anything. Could that be an amen? And here they are. They’re saved one month and the next month they got all nine gifts. And I go, “Yeah, what Bible you reading? What ghost do you?” God isn’t going to give him one gift. He’s going to give them the gift of Christ and the gift of the Holy Ghost to lead them into all truth. And these real substance things, he is not going to give them to because they can use them to destroy people.

▶ 32:48 Hallelujah. You know, you got to show some growth before you’re going to get wisdom and knowledge and prophecy. You got to show some maturity. God’s not going to dis distribute. And and even in these circles today, these people go, “I got to work. God showed me.” Ah, why do we got to hype up everything? Because we feel real spiritual. We feel real special. We feel powerful when we think we’re hearing from God. Are you there? Discerning of spirits is judging, making a decision. Okay. A distinction from the spirits. Now, how many spirits are there?

▶ 33:41 How many spirits are there? Three. Man, you you’re a wise congregation. Wise. There’s the spirit of man. There’s the spirit of Satan, evil spirits, and there is the spirit of God. And discerning spirits is just knowing what source the spirit is. Okay? An example, Luke 9:55, [clears throat] you know not what manner of spirit you are. Why did Jesus say that? Because they wanted to call down far from heaven and destroy these people that didn’t want Jesus coming into the town. So they knew in the Old Testament that Elijah called far down from heaven and destroyed the soldiers coming to get him. So they said, “Lord, let’s call down fire.” They were using the scripture in the wrong way.

▶ 34:32 And Jesus said, “What? You don’t know what spirit you’re on. That’s not the Holy Spirit. That’s your spirit. You got this thing all wrong. I come to save life, not kill people. I’m not out to kill people. I’m out to save people. That’s what he said next. Do you get it? Hallelujah. Acts 19:15. The evil spirit. These these seven sons of Cphus as they saw Paul casting out demons. And here’s a guy with an evil spirit like Saul had. King Saul had. He was angry, you know, did hurtful things. Evil spirit means a harmful spirit. And so they tried to cast out this spirit using the methods Paul used.

▶ 35:24 And this evilspirited man like King Saul said, “Jesus [clears throat] I know and Paul I know, but who in the world are you guys?” And he pounced on them, beat them up, took their clothes off, and chased them out of the house naked. See, they did not have discerning of spirits. But that was a harmful spirit. I know some people with a harmful spirit. And it’s not demon possession. They are viciously angry. They hurt people without even thinking about it. And that’s not the human spirit.

▶ 36:14 That’s not God’s spirit. That is a harmful spirit source and you need to get rid of it. Can I hear an amen? Hallelujah. Now, in the Pentecostals, you got discerning your spirit. You know, you can see through people and you can’t see beans. Come on. You haven’t even straightened out your own life. How you going to get the the 2x4 out of your brother’s life when when you got a tree in your own life? Amen. And so when we when we do these things by the flesh and the spirit is not ignited and we look like fools and we ask for criticism. We invite it and then we don’t even have answers for them. We just go, “Well, you know, they’re just not filled with the Holy Ghost.

▶ 37:06 They don’t understand.” Geez. You have to have the Holy Spirit, the initial spirit of God when he comes before you’re even born again. Isn’t that right? We just saw that. Are you there? So, they do have the Holy Spirit. They just haven’t been baptized in that power of the Holy Ghost yet. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have some power, does it? Are you there? I’ve seen a lot of people that don’t profess to have the baptism of the Holy Ghost have more power from that initial spirit than these people that claim to have the baptism of the Holy Ghost. And it showed in their life.