Are the gifts of the Holy Spirit real? Are they for today?, Ep 2-27
Welcome Back! I am your host Dawn Simmons and in this episode of Conquering Our Unseen Enemies we are beginning our discussion on the 9 Spiritual Gifts of the Holy Spirit. We actually started this discussion a few weeks ago when we discussed prophecy, that was a 2-part episode where we discussed not only the Spiritual gift of prophecy but also the Office of the prophet. With this episode, we are going to lay the groundwork for the 9 spiritual gifts as a whole. We will discuss if these gifts are real and whether or not each these gifts are available for us today. As we continue the year we will cover the remaining 8 gifts, not necessarily in order because we want to also cover topics such as the demonic influence of the Spirit of Religion which often interferes with the Spiritual Gifts in operation.
I want to bring you back to the scripture that is our starting point for all discussions regarding the spiritual gifts. Paul provides us with a list and an explanation in his letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthian church was having organizational and doctrinal problems and needed guidance in order to fully understand when the Holy Spirit was at work and what the Holy Spirit was providing.
Corinthians 12:1-11.
Now about the gifts of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.
4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.[b] 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines.
To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
The gifts can be categorized by what they provide to the receiver. The Holy Spirit is the giver of the gift and we, Holy Spirit filled believers, are the receivers of the gifts.
· Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers
· Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits
· Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues
One of the misconceptions I want to clear up at the beginning of our discussion is that we are truly speaking of gifts of the Holy Spirit. Someone may look at wisdom and say, “well, I’ve made some pretty wise decisions in my life” that is not a gift of the Holy Spirit, that is man or woman who has made wise decisions, nothing more than that. When we are speaking of gifts, we are speaking of an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift.
Nowadays, we have lost our understanding of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. We don’t know the true power that these first century Christians experienced and therefore needed Paul’s guidance to function in the gifts properly. Nowadays, most Christians not only cannot name the 9 gifts but they don’t know what they are, and that is why we are here my friends, to correct that and reveal what God has for us. Part of the problem is that church leadership has turned their back on God for centuries. You cannot expect modern Christians to know what most preachers not only won’t preach but outright deny exists. The denial belief has been perpetuated and grown for centuries. The enemy won’t stand in the way of a movement that denies the belief in the power and authority the Holy Spirit provides because the denial belief system castrates itself to be powerless, and ignorant of God. I know that seems strong to say, but if you listen to any believer that says the gifts are not for today, you will also see someone who does not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that is not guided by the Holy Spirit, that does not engage with the Holy Spirit, nor is he or she a person who hears what the Holy Spirit has to say to them. There is no heart there, just one-dimensional Christianity that will only allow what their level of faith dictates. I have met so many individuals who think this way I can’t even count them it’s so many. Their argument is a blanket, the gifts are not for today. They then say that anyone functioning in the gifts is a heretic or making it up or has a mental health issue. The problem with their statement is that if you ask, why are they not for today, you generally get as a response, because we don’t need them today. If you ask, why don’t we need them, then the answer is either, we have the Holy Spirit or we have the Bible. The problem with that argument is that the gifts come from the Holy Spirit so again, why don’t we need these gifts? As far as the bible is concerned, how blessed are we to have the written bible available in so many ways to us. The Bible does not negate the Holy Spirit. The Bible testifies to the Holy Spirit and the Bible testifies to the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. First century Christians did have portions of the Bible written, scrolls or letters that were circulated. Now the question becomes, where does the Bible say the gifts cease to operate? There is nowhere written in the Bible that even alludes to a cessation. So those who call themselves cessationists are spreading false doctrine. So you have megachurches such as John Macarthur telling millions a lie. He will have to answer for that one day. Just because the church is big does not mean that what is said is true.
To explain further, cessationists believe: the "sign gifts" (such as prophecy) described in the Bible were temporarily granted to the apostles to authenticate the origin and truth of the scriptures, and that at the close of the Apostolic Age these gifts had served their purpose and ceased to be granted.
The problem with that is the Bible does not say that, anywhere. The Bible says we will do greater things that what Jesus did because He had to leave us and it also tells us that He sent us a “Helper” to do the greater things. We cannot do these things in our own power, it is impossible. With God, nothing is impossible.
Cessationists are likely the biggest argument you will hear against the gifts and they can get very angry and mean spirited in defending their position. The fruit or lack of fruit in the conversation tells you what you need to know about their true character.
What if you have never experienced the gifts or have never seen the gifts in operation? That’s okay, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you the gifts. Ask for the gifts. As we go through each gift think about which one you would like to have and ask the Holy Spirit for that gift. I say one not because you can’t have all nine, but to start to learn and be developed in one at first is reasonable. If you already have three then ask for more. We don’t want to be satisfied with one or two gifts if more are available to us. The more gifts we have, the more we can do for the Kingdom. You don’t have to just have one gift.
So where do we go from here. Well, we already discussed prophecy, so we will continue through and discuss the remaining Spoken gifts. So our next podcast on this subject will be tongues and then we will follow up with interpretation of tongues. If you have questions along the way, email me at contact@conqueringourunseenenemies.com
Then over the remainder of the year we will address the Revelation and the power gifts, by category. Many times the gifts work together so we will talk about them as orderly as we can. We want to demystify the gifts and clarify misgivings.
I have met a few people who have had what they refer to as bad experiences with the gifts. When they explain what happened, it’s really more they either had a bad experience with a person at a meeting where gifts were in operation or they didn’t understand what was going on and it made them very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, that happened recently at a church I am familiar with. There is a group that meets and about half of the group hears from the Lord and the other half isn’t there yet but all in the group understand each other so it tends to work out. An invite was given for someone to attend the meeting, but they had no idea what was going on and as a result, it scared the invitee and this woman did not return. I hope that never happens to you, but if it does, don’t shut your heart to God, He may want to use you. The gifts will only be in operation with someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit. Will God make exceptions to this for His purposes, of course He can, but by and large the gifts are intended for those who are filled with the Spirit. Now that does not mean you have to be all weird, and I say that in complete honesty that sometimes Spirit filled people tend to be a bit more dramatic than is necessary. Sometimes it’s for attention, sometimes it’s just misguided, look past nonsense and look for the Holy Spirit.
One comment I hear too often is this “if the Holy Spirit wants me to have gifts, He’ll give them to me” Answer: no He won’t. The Holy Spirit is not going to give you a gift you don’t want and that you won’t bother to invest the time with Him to be developed in the use of the gift. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman and He would never give something that carries such a big responsibility to someone who doesn’t understand it, appreciate it or know anything about it.
If you want a gift, you not only have to ask for it, you may have to wait for it. He may want to make sure you are ready and committed. As we go through each gift, we will discuss the benefits but we will also be discussing the costs of having gifts. Understand that the gifts, once given, are irrevocable. Paul tells us that in Romans 11:29. That’s why you can see some people able to heal people in the most miraculous ways, but yet they are living in sin. We have to look at these gifts from the perspective that the gift is about the gift giver, not the one who has the gift. If we lose focus and make it about the one who has the gift, that house will fall. How many well-known pastors have we seen fall prey to redirecting the focus to themselves as if they were doing anything by their own might.
I know all that we have discussed so far has been really heavy. I am sorry for that but I feel it is really important to address those aspects that have prevented the move of the Holy Spirit. We need to talk about these things and get them out of our way. We don’t want any of it hanging in the back of our minds as we move forward to the good stuff, the great stuff, the most unbelievable stuff.
With each gift we will explain what it is and we will talk through some modern examples of the gift in action. Maybe some things you won’t believe but that’s ok, they still happened. I share what I know to be true.
As one who does not shy away from controversy, our next episode will be on Tongues! Probably one of the most heated, widely debated, misunderstood gift of all of them.
I hope you have enjoyed our time discussing the 9 Gifts of the Spirit and I hope it has helped to build your understanding. We cannot fully conquer our unseen enemies until we understand everything the Holy Spirit makes available to us. If you know anyone who might benefit from this, please share.
As always let’s discuss our Top Show Points:
· Discussing the 9 Gifts of the Spirit
· 1 Cor 12:1-11
· To summarize what Paul shared, the 9 Spiritual Gifts are: wisdom, word of knowledge, faith, healings, miraculous powers, prophecy, discerning of spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues.
o Gifts we use out of the Power we have from the Holy Spirit are: faith, healings, miraculous powers
o Gifts we have where the Holy Spirit uses us in Revelation are: wisdom, word of knowledge, discerning of spirits
o Gifts where the Holy Spirit uses us and are Spoken are: prophecy, tongues, interpretation of tongues
· When we are speaking of gifts, we are speaking of an action or a behavior that produces an outcome as a result of the Holy Spirit’s supernatural activity provided to us in a gift.
· We have lost our understanding of God and the power of the Holy Spirit
· Part of the problem is that church leadership has turned their back on God for centuries. You cannot expect modern Christians to know what most preachers not only won’t preach but outright deny exists. The denial belief has been perpetuated and grown for centuries.
· If you listen to any believer that says the gifts are not for today, you will also see someone who does not have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, that is not guided by the Holy Spirit, that does not engage with the Holy Spirit, nor is he or she a person who hears what the Holy Spirit has to say to them. There is no heart there, just one-dimensional Christianity.
· Those who say the gifts are not for today will say anyone functioning in the gifts is a heretic or making it up or has a mental health issue. They believe we don’t need the gifts today. If you ask, why don’t we need them, then the answer is either, we have the Holy Spirit or we have the Bible. The problem with that argument is that the gifts come from the Holy Spirit so again, why don’t we need these gifts? As far as the bible is concerned, The Bible does not negate the Holy Spirit. The Bible testifies to the Holy Spirit and the Bible testifies to the giving of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
· We discussed cessationists who believe: the "sign gifts" (such as prophecy) described in the Bible were temporarily granted to the apostles to authenticate the origin and truth of the scriptures, and that at the close of the Apostolic Age these gifts had served their purpose and ceased to be granted.
· Cessasionists are spreading false doctrine. One of the most well known cessationists is John MacArthur. Just because a church is big, doesn’t mean what they are teaching is true.
· I have met a few people who have had what they refer to as bad experiences with the gifts. When they explain what happened, it’s really more they either had a bad experience with a person at a meeting where gifts were in operation or they didn’t understand what was going on and it made them very uncomfortable
· Ask for the gifts. As we go through each gift think about which one you would like to have and ask the Holy Spirit for that gift
· One comment I hear too often is this “if the Holy Spirit wants me to have gifts, He’ll give them to me” Answer: no He won’t. The Holy Spirit is not going to give you a gift you don’t want and that you won’t bother to invest the time with Him to be developed in the use of the gift.
· If you want a gift, you not only have to ask for it, you may have to wait for it. He may want to make sure you are ready and committed. As we go through each gift, we will discuss the benefits but we will also be discussing the costs of having gifts. Understand that the gifts, once given, are irrevocable. Paul tells us that in Romans 11:29.
· We have to look at these gifts from the perspective that the gift is about the gift giver, not the one who has the gift. If we lose focus and make it about the one who has the gift, that house will fall.
We encourage you:
· To have an active Bible reading plan, it will be helpful in gaining wisdom and understanding and it is required for the gift of spiritual discernment
· If you want to learn more about how to Hear God's Voice, take a look at my book, Loving Conversations: How to Pray and Hear God's Voice. There is also a Study Guide available and two new devotionals out based on the Loving Conversations Book. One devotional is for women and one is for men.
· Class coming up 8/2 based on the Loving Conversations book on how to hear God’s Voice, sign up at lovingconversationssalo.com
I have enjoyed our time this week and look forward to spending time with you again next week!
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