THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Date: Mon Jun 11 20:37:49 2007

ORDERLY WORSHIP... (I Corinthians 14:26-40

"What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church. If anyone speaks in a tongue, two or at the most three should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God.

Two or three prophets should speak, and the others should weigh carefully what is said. And if a revelation comes to someone who is sitting down, the first speaker should stop. For you can all prophesy in turn so that everyone may be instructed and encouraged. The spirits of prophets are subject to the control of prophets. For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

Therefore, my brothers, be eager to prophesy, and do not forbid speaking in tongues. But everything should be done in a fitting and orderly way."

In this the twenty first century, the church has largely decided that the Gifts of the Holy Spirit are no longer a mandate for today. Certain gifts are treasured, for example a musical gift, or a preaching gift, or a fund-raising gift, but prophecies, tongues, words of knowledge are generally given a wide berth in order to appeal to the largest possible audience and to maintain the level of control that is deemed to be proper decorum. Even Pentecostal churches have often abandoned the gifts - if not doctrinally, in practical ways.

To be sure, much that was ATTRIBUTED to the Holy Spirit was NOT from the Holy Spirit. Many of us have heard the same people saying the same things with no impetus from the Holy Spirit and with no anointing. Many of these folks should have been sat down years ago. It is a tragedy when the flesh - even good, or make that even GREAT flesh - seeks to impersonate the Spirit. The fact remains that nothing worthless is ever counterfeited. Most counterfeiters don't even bother counterfeiting GENUINE ten's, five's, and one's. It simply isn't worth their time. So it is in the church. Nice sermons with limited power are not candidates for counterfeiting. The real that is of limited worth can simply be left alone. When it comes to something of value, though, something that could change the church, counterfeits abound. You hear someone say, "God said" such and such, and you wonder. "Huh?", or "Why", or "You coulda fooled me!" Satan wants Christians so confused that they will dispense with the gifts altogether and lead their lives on a purely physical if not carnal level.

(Verses 34-38 are not omitted because we donít like them. We LOVE them and believe them and know that they are also for today. This specific lesson does not touch on that particular issue which we have otherwise addressed!)

Much of the problem stems from accepting verbatim "words" that come from well-known individuals whose integrity is open to much question. Bombastic, slick, and apparently prosperous and "blessed" individuals with charismatic personalities have gotten away with murdering the word of God. People are scared to "touch God's anointed". Well, you had better NOT touch God's anointed, other than to tell the truth. David did Saul no harm, an anointed king leading the Jewish nation who had no clue about God.

David knew, though, that Saul did not have the truth of God and he went to God for himself. Paul did Peter no harm, but he sure "touched God's anointed" when he publicly rebuked him to his face when he acted in a hypocritical way with the Gentiles once his Jewish friends showed up. Paul also had words for "so-called leaders" who were preaching bondage to tradition. In I Timothy 5, the Holy Spirit teaches us to rebuke elders if they persist in sin and not to show partiality. So we do not go around looking to confront folks, but when things are wrong, they cannot be swept under the rug.

The church today would be far healthier and far more free from corruption if leaders were held accountable for false "prophecies" and false teachings. We have heard predictions of doom and gloom that did not occur - Y2K, Tsunamis on the east coast, dates for Christ's return, etc. Yet these folks keep turning out more new "prophecies". We have heard teachings that DIRECTLY contradict the unequivocally clear word of God, and are told it is a matter of interpretation. I reject those outright and do not put myself under the spiritual authority of such individuals.

So where do we go from here? What do we do when the world is awash in the counterfeit? We seek the real. We cling to the real. We cherish the real. No one throws away all their twenty dollar bills because there has been a flood of counterfeits. We treasure the real ALL THE MORE. We simply check what comes into our lives very closely and make sure that what looks and feels good actually IS good! Counterfeiters get progressively better, so each deviation from the word of God is more subtle and harder to detect than the last.

We need to set aside all the preprogrammed services and man-made ingredients for success. People have written books on how to start and grow churches. There are formulas that work with people who donít know better. When you have seen the hand of God work in wonderful ways, your desire is to allow him the room to operate. The Bible says not to muzzle the ox when he is treading out the grain. This not only applies to those who are supported by the church to do intensive ministry work. It applies to the Holy Spirit as well. If it were not possible to QUENCH the Holy Spirit, it would not have been mentioned in the Bible. I see heavy-duty quenching all the time. It is grievous to the Lord. It is a prime reason that the church is so weak and so different from the New Testament model.

We come together having ALREADY met God. We bring with us the gifts and understandings Christ has revealed to us through the Holy Spirit. As the BODY OF CHRIST, we come together knowing that none of us, not even the Senior Pastor with fifty years of leadership experience has all the gifts or all the understandings. God distributes the gifts severally as he wills. We have an incomplete time if that which comes by the Spirit in a brother or sister is ignored by those planning the gathering. The Holy Spirit is a great service planner. If we leave things to him, the songs, the hymns, the scriptures, the prophecies, the tongues, the interpretations, the healings, the deliverances, and everything else will be coordinated just the way he desires. If we didnít need the Spirit of God, He would not have been sent. It is not enough to worship in truth. That is a whole lot better than worshipping amiss, but those who worship God MUST worship him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH.

I enjoy when things are done God's way. It is so rich when Christ ministers to your heart, and when YOU can participate in what is going on. God wants to use THE BODY. That is why we are the BODY OF CHRIST! We are not automatons in an audience. We are not observers. We are co-laborers, we are coworkers in the vineyard. Each gift is valued. Luke records in the Book of Acts the attitude of the apostles when the problem in serving the widows arose. They felt they could not be bothered with such things, so they appointed others. It was a good thing, because they werenít in a position to help those women. The seven including Stephen were in that position, and they SOLVED the problem. If only the animosities between the Jews and Gentiles could have been solved in that way - the fact was that the leaders did not have THAT anointing. But Stephen did, and not only was the problem solved, but God honored him by allowing him to stand before the council with such boldness and purity of spirit that they treated him EXACTLY the way they treated Jesus. What an honor!

So many exalt one gift above another. We are all EQUAL in Godís sight. We are valued not the way the WORLD values, but the way GOD values. God values Spirit-led worship and Spirit led gatherings. He pours into all his people everything they will accept from his hand, and he expects them to share and dispense to others from the treasures he has poured into them.

Perhaps you say you have no gift or do not know what it is. Get together with people who honor the Holy Spirit and you will soon find out. God will make you useful in his Kingdom. God has not called the proud, but the humble. God has not called those whom the world loves - he has called those HE loves. God has a glorious church in mind ñ a Bride fit for his precious Son. A Bride without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. A Bride at peace with herself and able to communicate with the Son.

Jesus Christ is the only person in history to have ALL the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The many-membered bride will have ALL those gifts as well. They wonít ALL be resident in any one person ñ but in the BODY. The church is our training ground for heaven. The church is the glorious institution wherein the glory of God is placed. It is how we can be conformed to his character and his likeness. God did not err when he commanded us what to do when we came together. The Holy Spirit did not go on vacation after the first century. We are not so mature we don't have to sit before God to hear him speak any more. We cannot run on autopilot, we cannot operate in accordance with organizational principles that work in the business world. We can only have success when we do things God's way. When we see things God's way. When we submit to God's Holy Spirit. When we stop trying to second guess him. When flesh dies.

COMMENTS

Name: Tony

Date: Mon Jun 11 10:52:24 2007

Comment:

Greetings, I learned about the existence of this blog this morning as I was listening to the broadcast on the Camdem/Philadelphia station.

The teaching you have provided in this message is inspiring. I have heard false teachings such as you describe in this post. I am concerned. Finding a church home has been difficult. I see evidence I of self-promotion by church leaders.

Thank you for creating this blog. I am looking for other blogs like it. may the Lord continue to bless you and this work you do for the Kingdom.

Name: JohnTheEvangelist

Date: Mon Jun 11 20:43:13 2007

Comment: Self promotion is the order of the day. I received an email from my radio broker today - he said 90% of churches do not want to have a radio broadcast that is evangelistic in nature because they do not want to offend anyone. The church has lost its saltiness, so how can the earth be blessed? Hopefully people like you will demand the true gospel and genuine servanthood from the churches you consider for membership. There is much work to be done. God bless you!