Transcript

Sermon Transcript: The Miraculous Gifts

9/3/2023 Jon Gaus 30 min read

Pastor John:

Holy Spirit of God, we worship You. We praise You. We recognize that You are the author of Scripture. And one of the names the Lord Jesus gave You is the teacher. So we're asking You to be the perfect teacher for us today. You know everything. You know everything about every person who You called to be here. That this is a divine appointment, that we're all in this worship center today. Would You please feed each one of us supernaturally and spiritually, so that we may take the next step of faith with Christ that You are calling and ordaining us to take. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

Amen. Well church, I was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and there's not a lot of things to be proud about being in Michigan and Flint, but one of the things that we were really proud about in Flint is that Flint, Michigan is the birthplace of the Chevrolet Corvette.

Yes, back in 1957, the first model rolled off the assembly line, and then every year till 1990, they did something really interesting. Chevrolet built a brand new model called the ZR1. It was the most powerful Corvette that they had manufactured up to this point, and they had two keys for the ignition. The first key would go in and you would get 200 horsepower. You could drive it around. It still felt like it had a lot of capacity and power. And then there was a second key that you could turn in and it would double the horsepower to 400 horsepower and just double the capacity of all of the power of that engine.

Now, the car dealers in Flint, they joke about the fact that they would tell guys that were buying the Corvette, "What's great about this ZR1 is when your friends and family want to borrow your Corvette, you just give them one key. They don't even know what this thing's capable of. They'll be happy with 200 horsepower. They don't know there's a whole half of the engine they're not even using or there's twice as much power."

That reminds me a lot of Christians today. A lot of Christians today are unaware there's so much more power that we could be experiencing. There's so much of a greater capacity that the Holy Spirit could actually be using us in situations and in the lives of others. And I think there's so many Christians who are only at half speed, half power because many of us have not been taught correctly about the spiritual gifts.

That's what we're going to look at today. In fact, the passage that we're in 1 Corinthians 12, we'll see nine spiritual gifts listed out of the total of 21 that are into the New Testament. And these nine spiritual gifts that we're going to look at, a lot of Bible scholars consider them the miraculous gifts and you'll see why. This is one of the passages that's most discussed and debated among Christians and scholars, but we think that the Lord has spoken clearly.

Now, before we start, we need to establish the biblical grid through which we're going to look at these nine miraculous gifts. The first part of the grid is this. All of the spiritual gifts that were operational in the New Testament Church are operational for us today. We can take advantage of all of them. There isn't one passage in Scripture that states that any of the operational spiritual gifts, even the miraculous ones have ceased into being.

In fact, when you and I look at this, there is only one thing from the New Testament that we can't carry into the modern church, and that is the Office of Apostle. We'll call that Apostle capital A, because to be an apostle, you had to have seen the Risen Christ and then personally commissioned by the Risen Christ.

The Office of Apostle was like the modern day Old Testament prophet. They could write Scripture. There were only 15 in the Office of Apostle in the New Testament. We had the original 12, and then of course Judas disqualified himself and Mathias took his place. Then the Bible says that Paul was an Apostle, that Barnabas was an Apostle and the half brother of Jesus James was an Apostle. Well, now that the cannon is closed and Scripture has been completed and is fully written, we have no need and there's no longer the Office of Apostle.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

Now, you may have some people who call themselves apostle, "Well, I'm the apostle so-and-so." Or, "I am the apostle of this and that." That's un-biblical. It's not of God and it means nothing. Now, even though the Office of Apostle is no longer around capital A, there is a calling, an apostolic calling that some people have on their life from the Holy Spirit. We'll call this of apostolic lowercase a. It literally means in the Greek, one cent on a mission.

So when a missionary or a church planter is sent to open up a spiritually dark place with the light of the Gospel, that is an apostolic calling. Those are still happening today. In fact, the church that we're in, 13 years ago, Pastor Jeff and Kim who were in Peoria ... Let me see, Flint, Peoria. Even if we weren't called, we were coming to Colorado. Do you get the idea? They were in Peoria. They received an apostolic calling from the Holy Spirit to come to a spiritually dark place, Denver and to plant a lighthouse of the Gospel, BRAVE Church.

So that's the grid that you and I are looking through. Now, if you want a deeper study on why all of the miraculous gifts are operational today, back in 2018, Pastor Jeff taught through the whole Book of 1 Corinthians verse by verse. That's 42 messages and they're all on the website. You can get on there and watch anytime. It's a very deep grid that he put together.

All right, BRAVE. The first biblical truth we need to establish for things this morning, so we know that our re efforts are not a waste. Number one, look at this. All of our ministry, including operating in the spiritual gifts, must be wrapped in love or it's all useless. All of our ministry, including operating in the spiritual gifts, the miraculous spiritual gifts, it doesn't matter how good we are at them, if they're not wrapped in love, they're useless.

Do you remember what 1 Corinthians 14:1 said? Paul said, "Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy." His first two words were, "Pursue love." And it's no coincidence that the love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13 is wedged right between 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14, that deal with spiritual gifts, because this is a corrective letter to a very immature and carnal church.

So when they would receive spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit, they did not use them for the common good of the church and to make Jesus look awesome. They took those spiritual gifts and they focused them on themselves and wore them as a badge that, "I'm better than you spiritually. I am who I am. Look at me. This is who I am." So Paul writes this corrective letter.

Remember the truth bomb that he dropped in them in 1 Corinthians 13? He said, "I don't care if you have perfect theology. I don't care if you have faith that will move mountains. I don't care if you talk and speak in the tongues of men and angels. If you have not love, you're a clanging cymbal." That is a great warning to you and I. That you and I in all of our ministry and operations in the spiritual gifts would always be wrapped in love or they're not of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

All right, let's take a look at this. We have 1 Corinthians 12. Let's start at verse seven. This is not exhaustive, it's an overview, but it can take us to the next step as a church. It can take us to the next greener pasture. That's where we want to go. The Spirit through Paul said, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by the one in same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he will."

Now over the next few minutes, we're going to touch on all nine of these miraculous gifts, but we're really going to camp out on three. It's the three that we get the most questions about, that people are really curious about. How do I operate in the gift of tongues, the gift of healing and the gift of prophecy? Are you interested in those? I believe that, 'cause that's the questions that we always get.

So what does the Bible say is the definition of a spiritual gift? The Bible doesn't really give us a clear definition. Probably the best one we have is right here in verse seven. We just read it, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." Paul said the same thing in 1 Corinthians 14:3. He said, "In any spiritual gifts that you get, they're not for you. Therefore, the comfort of the local church, the building up of the saints and the encouragement of your fellow brothers and sisters. It's all about glory for Jesus, joy that you get to be used and they get the gift." It's win-win-win. That's how it unfolds.

Okay, look at biblical truth number two. Though we can't demand spiritual gifts, we can position ourselves to receive more. Remember the command of chapter 14 verse one, "Earnestly desire spiritual gifts." We can't demand more spiritual gifts, but we can position ourselves so the Spirit can give more. If this is representing a spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit has that He wants to give to somebody in this congregation to give to somebody else, here's what He's looking for. He's looking for open hands. So you can grab that gift and deliver it to the person in the church who's supposed to have it.

Now, when you and I are harboring bitterness and unconfessed sins, that's what we're carrying around. We can't reach and we can't get that gift. That's why it's so important that our confession of sins remains current, clean and close to the Lord Jesus. Well, let's say that I have open hands, but you know those miraculous gifts? I'm not really interested in dealing with those. That's for the church down the street. So this believer has empty hands, but he's indifferent, so he's not reaching out. Then we have the third person who is current in their confession of sin, they believe what the Bible says, and they are earnestly desiring more spiritual gifts.

You ever been to a Denver Nuggets game? Last time I went to a Denver Nuggets game, I was sitting in a really nice section. And looking around, I figured these people are well-to-do most of them. They had to be to get these tickets. And they're dressed nice and they're kind of laid back and they're cool and they're bien in demure, until the t-shirt canon came out. And they started shooting that and these people were like, "Give me one right here."

It's a $4 t-shirt. It's going to be gone after two washings. But they couldn't wait to get that thing, and they're elbowing each other out and they're dropping everything and they're like ... You know what I thought? Those people are earnestly desiring T-shirts. What a picture of how you and I should be earnestly desiring spiritual gifts and more spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit, and He will give them.

Okay, let's start walking through these nine miraculous gifts. Back to verse eight, the Spirit through Paul says, "For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit." These gifts are often referred to as a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge. Now, this is the only time in the New Testament they're ever mentioned. So if we're going to get the true meaning of what they are, we have to look at the context of where they are in chapter 12. These are the supernatural miraculous gifts.

So we know what Paul is talking about, is you and I receiving a supernatural word of wisdom. That means that you and I could be talking to somebody after church at a first Tuesday in the lobby, and this brother in Christ is just pouring out his situation. His job's going down, his marriage is not working well. It's very complicated and it's multilayered, and you almost want to quit the conversation. But you know what? Jesus loves that brother and He says, "I need to give that guy a supernatural word of wisdom." So He gives it to you.

All of a sudden out of your mouth comes wisdom that is so good, you're shocked. You're like, "Where did that come from? I can't believe that they just came out of my mouth." That was the supernatural gift of the word of wisdom, because Jesus loves that brother and you were faithful to receive it and deliver it. Jesus gets the glory, you get the joy, he gets the gift. That's how that works. Or maybe you're in a meeting and people are trying to figure something out that's super complicated. They're all brainstorming. And out of the blue, without having paralysis by analysis, the Spirit said, "Try this." And you just blurt it out. And the meeting stops and they turn to you like, "Where did that come from? That's way smarter than you are." That is the supernatural word of wisdom.

Okay, the gift of the word of knowledge is when you receive knowledge about a person or situation that you would have no way of knowing if the Holy Spirit hadn't imparted that gift to you. And that knowledge is always going to be comforting, strengthening and encouraging to them in their situation. I had a fellow pastor that worked at one of our church plants with us, and this college girl needed counseling and he didn't know anything that was going on in her life.

She came in and she was burdened and just shamed and in chains. And all of a sudden, because Jesus loves her, He gave my fellow pastor a supernatural word of knowledge about this woman. And without filtering, he blurts out, "Mandy, did you have an abortion during Christmas break?" She just fell out, in a good way. It had finally come to the surface.

Now the healing light of Jesus could shine on it and he let her know, Jesus forgives you. He does not want you to walk around with the lies of the enemy and in shame. He wants you to be restored. He's the gentle shepherd and Jesus gave him that. And later on, he told me, he goes, "I don't know where that came from. I just said it, 'cause I knew it was from the Holy Spirit." That's a word of knowledge.

Now, just after that, there's a buddy of mine who got saved in his 40s, and he was praying for his father forever to come to Christ. And it was a word of knowledge, it was really a gift of faith where the Holy Spirit said, "Your father is going to come to Christ." And he waited and kept praying, and waited and kept praying, and waited and kept praying. And you would ask him, "Aren't you getting tired or discouraged?" And he would say, "No, no, no. I was given this word of knowledge. I was given this gift of faith. I will not waver, no matter how many naysayers there are." And at 99, the dad turned his life over to the Lord. That's from the Holy Spirit. That was a gift from the Holy Spirit.

Now the next miraculous gift in this list, verse nine, "To another faith by the same Spirit." Now Paul is not referring to saving faith here. You must have saving faith to come to Christ, so he's talking to believers. They already have saving faith. You have saving faith if you're born again. That's how we received Christ. We repented and believed that was our saving faith.

What he's talking about here is when the Holy Spirit gifts you with extraordinary supernatural confidence that something is going to happen. You have no idea when it's going to take place, but nothing is going to stop you from believing, because you have been given this supernatural gift of faith. It doesn't matter that the odds are against you. It doesn't matter that logic is against you. It doesn't matter that waiting is against you. If you've been given the supernatural gift of faith, you will never waver.

Just this past week, a friend of my wife's texted her to let her know that supernatural gift of faith that the Holy Spirit gave me from my family a few years ago, that my kids would end up growing up on a ranch. They weren't on a ranch. That they would be able to have animals and this is the way God designed them. And once He gave me that, I never wavered. The money didn't make sense. The season of life didn't make sense, but she texted to let us know we're living on this big old ranch. And look at these pictures of my kids and they're with their animals and they're running around. She never wavered. All the naysayers said that can't happen. "It's not logical. You don't have the money." But it is the supernatural gift of faith and God will give those.

Now the next one is the supernatural miraculous gift of healings by the one Spirit. Gifts of healings. Now, most of our English versions didn't do a good job at translating that. It's actually literally in the Greek, gifts of healings. The New King James has a correct, gifts of healings. Now saints, there is massive confusion amongst Christians about this spiritual gift.

First, we need to know that there's no such thing listed in the Bible as the gift of healing. There never has been, there never will be. There isn't a gift of healing. It's gifts of healings. And there is no one person who possesses the gift of healing that can heal at will anyone, anytime, anywhere. Even the Apostle Paul couldn't do it. The Apostle Paul received lots of gifts of healings from the Holy Spirit to give to people he was ministering to, and he faithfully gave it to them and they were healed, but he couldn't heal on demand.

It says in Philippians 2, he left Epaphroditus sick and moved on. He left Trophimus sick at Miletus. He could not heal on demand. He left Timothy sick with stomach issues and told him to drink some wine. Paul could not heal on demand. He couldn't even heal the own thorn in the flesh. The only person in history who has ever permanently possessed the gift of healing is Jesus. He's the only One. And so what happens is that the Holy Spirit though wants to give us gifts of healings, because in His mercy, He loves to supernaturally heal people.

Now suppose after this service, a man comes up to me and he says, "Pastor John, I've suffered for 10 years with migraines. Would you pray for my healing?" Of course, I'm going to pray for his healing. I believe God can heal. I believe God loves to heal and I'm going to pray with faith. Well, right as I get to start praying for this guy, the Holy Spirit gives me a gift of healing for him. All of a sudden, I am praying completely differently. I am praying with a kind of faith that I don't think God can heal. He loves you. God is going to heal this man right now, 'cause I'm going to give him this gift of healing and I pray and he's healed. Guess what happens? Jesus gets the glory, I get the joy and he gets the gift.

Five minutes later, another guy comes up and he says, "Pastor John, I've had migraines for 20 years. Would you pray for my healing?" Of course, I'm going to pray for his healing, 'cause I believe God can heal. He loves to heal and He's merciful on His people. So I start praying for him and I pray a prayer, and nothing happens. And God doesn't heal him because the Spirit never gave me a supernatural gift of healing to give him. Now church, whenever God chooses to miraculously heal in this lifetime, it's always for His glory and the person's good. Amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

When God says no to a divine healing for one of His people, it's always for His glory and the person's good. Amen. You guys didn't sound enthusiastic as I was when I was over here. We know that's true, because God does everything for His glory and for His people. He always does what's good. We don't know what He's unfolding in this person's life. We have no idea, but we know if He says yes or He says no to a healing, it's always for His glory and for the good of the person.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

That's how we pray for that. Now, it's a great place to point out that the 21 spiritual gifts listed in the New Testament really fall into two categories that some Bible scholars use, and I like it. I think it makes sense. We can back it up Biblical. Look at number three. There are spiritual gifts that are permanent and residential, and there are spiritual gifts that are occasional and circumstantial. There are spiritual gifts that are permanent and residential in every believer. The gift of leadership, the gift of teaching, the gift of administration, those are permanently with you. They're resident in you. You can use them anytime. It's a choice of your will.

In fact, I have the spiritual gift of teaching. If somebody woke me up tonight at 2:00 AM in the morning, handed me a biblical text, once I woke up, I could teach that using my gift of teaching. I could explain it and then put an application for that person's life. It's residential, it's permanent. I could do it anytime. My wife, Beth has an outstanding gift of hospitality. And so wherever we go, she's using that gift of hospitality and making everyone feel like they're the most important person in the room, and that we're all home and we're a family together. She can do that anytime, anywhere as a choice of the will. Those are permanent and residential.

The other ones are occasional and circumstantial. Only God can give them in His perfect will and His perfect timing. We cannot demand them. When I was praying for this guy with a migraine, He gave me an occasional circumstantial gift to pray into that man's life. I could not demand it. In fact, I couldn't duplicate it 20 minutes later, because gifts of healing, the miraculous gifts are occasional and circumstantial.

Now, no one permanently possesses the gifts gift of healing besides Jesus. Even though that's true, there are believers who seem to have an unusual frequency of praying for the sick and they get healed. Do you know anybody like that? They don't permanently possess it. They can't do it on demand. They can't do it every time, but they have an unusual frequency that when they pray for people, someone is miraculously healed. All I can think of with those believers is first of all, they earnestly desire spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit sees them and then they're like the people at the Nuggets game like, "Please, please, please give me another spiritual gift, so You get the glory, I get the joy and they get the gift."

Second of all, I believe they're humble, because God gives grace to the humble, and spiritual gifts are a gift of grace. So the Holy Spirit knows, "They're humble. I can trust them with this gift." And the third thing they have a track record of is they don't want to steal any glory from God. They're not going to use this gift to heal and say, "Look at me. You're not a spiritual as me. I am a healer." They don't do that. They say, "This is amazing. I want to grow in humility. More of Christ, less of me, but I want more of them." And oftentimes, the Holy Spirit will entrust those gifts to those people.

Okay, the next miraculous gift in verse 10, "To another the working of miracles." Literally translates working of mighty powers. We see this kind of mighty power in the earthly ministry of Jesus. We have 40 recorded miracles of His. He did more, but there are 40 that are recorded. And the kind of mighty power He showed is that He has the mighty power over creation, 'cause he's the Creator. He can walk on water. He can say to the storm, "Be still." And it's still. He has that kind of mighty power.

He showed in his earthly ministry that He had mighty power over death, because He can raise the dead. That's mighty power. He also showed that He had mighty power over Satan in the demonic realm, and He cast out lots of demons. He defeated Satan once and for all. That's kind of what we're looking at when there is a gift of the miracle of mighty powers.

Now, as one Bible scholar puts it, this gift of the working of miracles is the supernatural ability given to a believer to pray and see the mighty power of God is going to be manifested in this situation, in this person or in this group. It goes against all natural laws. It's the mighty power of Christ, but it causes lots of awe and worship.

Well, I was really thinking through, have I seen this recently? The gift of the mighty miracle working power given to any believers at BRAVE. And what the Spirit brought to my heart was the new ministry we have called BRAVE Deliverance Ministry, because we have found out that there are a lot of Christians who are saved yet still in bondage. They're forgiven, but they're not fully free. They still have a stronghold, a demonic stronghold around some part of their life in thinking, they have a strong man that won't let go of them, and we in our own power can't do anything about that. It's the miracle working power of Jesus that sets the captives free.

So as we have trained biblically with this Deliverance team, that's what they do. They do everything in the name of Jesus, in their identity in Jesus, 'cause that's where the miracle working power is. Do you understand that when you say Jesus' name, it sends shockwaves in the demonic realm? That's how powerful it is. And so that's what they use in their Deliverance Ministry, the mighty miracle working power of Jesus over the demonic realm. And praise God, we're seeing people get free. Amen. You're going to hear more about that ministry.

Okay. The next miraculous gift, verse 10, "To another is given prophecy." Now prophecy is always from the Holy Spirit. It's a supernatural revelation. It's not a hunch. It's not a good guess. It's not a conjecture on my part. It's always a supernatural revelation. And one thing we can know if it's really a word of prophecy from the Holy Spirit, it will completely harmonize with the Word of God, because the Holy Spirit wrote the Word of God. Why would He give us a word of prophecy that isn't completely harmonized with his Word? So that's the first test when we believe that we're getting a word of prophecy.

Now, here's how this spells out in the local church. Let's say that I'm praying for my brother down here with a ERT. And as I was praying for him this week, the Holy Spirit put a vision on my heart. It was a picture of him and his family and they were in a certain scenario. And I thought, "Well, that might just be bad pizza. I'm going to keep praying about it." Next day, I have the same vision. Now I know that is a gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit. But it's not mine. I'm just the mailman.

So I go over to my brother and I say ... First of all, I have to go humbly to him, 'cause God gives grace to the humble. I cannot say to him, "Thus sayeth the Lord." Only the Old Testament Prophets and New Testament Scripture [inaudible 00:29:46] and Apostles could say, "Thus sayeth the Lord." I have to go to him and say, "You know brother, I was praying for you and your family this week." And this vision kept coming on my heart, and I want to tell you what it is. It's not my job to interpret it, I just deliver it.

So I give it to him, now he's got it. My job is done. I was the faithful mailman. I did it humbly. I get the joy, but he has a ministry to do too. It's in 1 Thessalonians 5. I think we're going to put it on the screen. This is his ministry, "Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil."

So he takes this vision, prophetic vision, I gave it to him. He starts praying over it and testing it, 'cause that's what you have to do when you receive one from somebody. And after a couple of days, he's like, "This is dead on. Jesus really does love my family, because He confirmed something we've been praying about with this vision that was delivered to me by a brother in Christ."

Or he may pray over it for a few days and go, "Yeah, that's from the Lord. That's from the Lord. I don't know what that is. It doesn't ring true with me at all, but I'm going to accept these two, 'cause those are from the Lord. I'm going to do away with what's not from the Lord." That's how prophecy works in the local body. The Holy Spirit wants to pour out so many more prophetic gifts to us to give to each other. It's the way He turns a crowd into a community of Christ.

Saints, look at biblical truth number four. Biblical truth number four, prophecy is a spiritual gift that should be growing in frequency in these last days. That's biblical. That prophecy is a supernatural gift that should be growing in every church in these last days. You're looking at me like, "Prove it biblically." Let's flip over to Acts 2. Acts 2, it's the Day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit of God is poured into every believer. Up until this point in the old covenant, only certain priests, prophets and kings had the Holy Spirit, but now it's every believer. That's what the Prophet Joel prophesied that that day is coming and now it's here.

So Peter stands up now that everyone has the Holy Spirit and this is what he quotes from the Prophet Joel, Acts 2:17-18, "And in the last days, it shall be,' God declares, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh. Your sons, your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams. Even on my male servants and my female servants, in those days I will pour out my Spirit and they shall prophesy."

Now, notice it didn't say, in the end times, I will pour out my Spirit, 'cause the last days of the New Testament doesn't mean end times. There is a season coming called the end times that is right before the return of Christ. Come quickly Lord Jesus. Amen.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

That's the end times. The Bible clearly teaches that whenever you see last days, those last days started at the perfect life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We are now in the last days, that's what we're in. And what's supposed to be happening in the last days? Your sons, your daughter shall prophesy. Are they? Do they understand what that is? "Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Young men shall see visions. Your old men shall dream dreams." I am not hearing enough visions and dreams at BRAVE Church. That's what's supposed to be increasing. That's why I believe the Holy Spirit brought this teaching. So we get it. It's not weird. I don't have to fear it. They are gifts from the Holy Spirit.

Now, I'll give you a couple of real life examples. A couple of months ago, I'm in a senior leadership team meeting here at BRAVE, and we're rejoicing at every wonderful thing God has done. The way He just miraculously brought all the pieces for BRAVE Academy. I mean that's amazing. And other things, the Colorado Springs Campus type of thing, and we're sitting there and the Spirit gave me a prophetic word and I did not have paralysis by analysis. I just said it in front of all the senior leaders. I said, "I think the Spirit just wanted me to share this prophetic word, that what the Spirit is about to unfold at BRAVE Church, we will not be able to control."

Does that resonate with anybody in here? Doesn't that sound like the Holy Spirit? He doesn't share Jesus's glory with anyone. And I repeated it four weeks later. I said, "I want to remind you of what I really believe the Holy Spirit gave me this prophetic word. That what He's about to unfold at BRAVE Church, we will not be able to control. We'll be able to just go on the ride with Him. That's what it's going to be. And I believe that's totally scriptural."

Now, sometime before that, I had a real warrior, this sister in Christ come up to me at BRAVE. And as I had been squeezed on every side by the Holy Spirit and I had gotten to the point I was squeezed so much, I started calling the season, the beautiful crucible. The Spirit kept tightening and tightening all these pressures, but I realized, "But He's doing a beautiful work. He's pruning me. There's flesh that is being pressed out of me."

She came up to and she said, "John, I was praying for you and I believe the Spirit wants me to share with you that He's preparing you in this season of pressing for a greater influence in ministry." I mean that was dead on. I said to her, "Sister, you are hearing from the Holy Spirit because that totally rings true with me." Jesus got the glory, she got the joy, I got the gift. That's how it works.

All right, next miraculous gift as we're going into verse 10, "To another the ability to distinguish between spirits." This is a special ability from the Holy Spirit to recognize the influence when the Holy Spirit is in a person or situation. Conversely, it will help you recognize when the situation of the person is demonic and carnal in a particular situation.

Now, my wife Beth operates in this gift a lot. The Holy Spirit gives her a lot of gifts of discerning in spirits. Just a few months ago, she was involved with extended family on a project, and they brought in some outside people. And right away the Spirit said, "I want to protect your extended family, so I'm going to give you the gift of discernment of spirits." And right away, she knew. That guy, that guy is demonically influenced. He's coming here to divide. He has no good motives.

So she humbly shared that with the other family members, and they didn't see it. And so she just kept holding onto it and kept praying and waiting for the opportunity to share that. And then, it finally came to light. They found out he was masquerading as an angel of light. It was demonic behind him. He had a former really terrible criminal record he had lied about, and it was because the Holy Spirit loves that family that he gave her that gift of distinguishing of spirits to say, "This is of the Lord. This is of carnal flesh or of the enemy."

Okay, last two miraculous gifts. We're bringing it in for a landing, "To another various kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues." Now right up front, let's just be honest, there are many people in this room have a really bad taste when they hear the topic of tongues. Isn't that true? It's because you've seen abuses. You've seen someone get up in a public gathering and share a tongue and there was no one there to interpret, and it was really weird and awkward and people just moved on. That was not of the Holy Spirit. That was not obedient to the Scriptures. Or you've known someone who was given the spiritual gift of tongues and they wore it as a superiority over people who have not been given that gift. Those are the abuses. That's not from the Holy Spirit.

In fact, Acts 2, on the Day of Pentecost, we see that the Apostles were given the supernatural gift of tongues. It was a known foreign language, so that they are preaching the greatness of God and the Gospel in the language of every foreigner who is visiting Jerusalem for Pentecost. And these foreigners were shocked, "How do they know our language?" That is one of the uses of the spiritual gift of tongues, and that can't still happen today when the Holy Spirit wills it. But Paul gives us some interesting information in 1 Corinthians 14.

He pulls back the curtain on his personal devotion life. And what he's teaching us is, there is a private use of the spiritual gift of tongues between him and Christ, and he's the only one there. It's a heavenly language. He doesn't even know what he's saying. The words are bypassing his mind, but they're from his spirit to the Holy Spirit. He knows he's worshiping, he knows he's thanking God and he knows he's praying. I want you to see that.

Look at 1 Corinthians 14. Paul's pulling back the curtain. We'll start at verse 13. It's fascinating that he gave us this. The Holy Spirit through Paul says in chapter 14, verse 13, "Therefore one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret." That's the biblical command. If you're going to get up and think you're going to say a tongue in the church, either you better be able to interpret it or you better know there's an interpreter there. If there's not, remain silent.

Congregation:

Amen.

Pastor John:

"For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfulfilled." He's talking about a language he doesn't even know. He's talking about when he gets together in his prayer closet, he's praying a heavenly language. His mind is not fruitful, but his spirit is fruitful because it's connecting directly to the Holy Spirit. "What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also." Meaning in the language that he knows. "I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind also." Meaning in public, I'm going to sing in a language you know and you recognize, so you can praise God too. I'm going to pray in the language that we all know, unless I have an interpreter.

"Otherwise, if you give thanks with your spirit, the heavenly language, how can anyone in the position of an outsider say, 'Amen,' to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying? For you may be giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not being built up. I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you. Nevertheless, in church, I would rather speak five words with my mind, in order to instruct others than 10,000 words in a tongue."

The Corinthians were immature believers. They're saying, "We speak in tongues." They were abusing it. Paul said, "You want to talk about speaking in tongues? I speak in tongues more than all of you. But when I'm in the church, I would rather have five words that are in the language that we all share, so that everyone is edified and built up." So Paul, five in the church, where are these thousands of words that you're speaking in a tongue, there in his prayer closet with just him and Christ. That's where he is. He doesn't know what he's saying. It doesn't go past his mind. It's going from his spirit to the Holy Spirit. It's a heavenly language. That's what Paul is really promoting. He's promoting the private use of tongues, and then he's warning about the public use must be this way.

Back in our first church plan in Wisconsin, I did what BRAVE Church does. I dug in the Word. I dug in the Word. I dug in the word, 'cause the Spirit kept bringing up miraculous gifts, and He kept bringing up the gift of tongues. So I kept studying and kept studying, and I saw what Paul said here, and I realized there is a private use of tongues and I want that gift. I want to worship that way. I want to sing that way in my prayer closet. So I decided to eagerly desire that gift.

So I would go on prayer walks for weeks. I would be praying. I would be praising. And then one day, it's like a switch. All of a sudden, I'm praying and I'm praising in a language I've never heard, but my spirit knew it and was rejoicing. And I could do it so much longer than when all the prayers had to go through my mind and I had to form the words. And I've been able to enjoy the private use of tongues for years. Never understood what the words are that are coming out of my mouth, but I just know it's the confirmation of the Holy Spirit and what the Apostle Paul lifted up.

Now, unlike some pastors, I have friends who are in the pastor who disagree with me on this. I do not believe the gift of tongues is for every believer. I don't. I believe the Holy Spirit determines in His own appropriation who receives the gift of tongues. It doesn't make anyone better, it doesn't make anyone worse. There are scholars who believe it on that side. There are Bible scholars who say, "No, it's for every believer and you should all desire it." I'm basing it on what we just studied, 1 Corinthians 12 where Paul said, "The Spirit gives to one this and He gives to the other this, and He gives to the other this and He gives to the other this." It's like he's dealing out in beautiful sovereignty, the gifts. It doesn't say he empties the box of the gifts and says, "You can all have it, just ask for it."

So I personally don't believe that. But if like me, you're sensing that there is a fiber in your spirit of the Holy Spirit confirming, I do want you to have that. This is what I'm going to tell you to do. Eagerly desire it, be humble, ask for it on your prayer walks, praising God. If He desires you to get it, you're going to get it. And you're going to realize it is a very beautiful gift not to be abused.

Okay church, this is how I want to finish today. I would love to have the worship team come up so we can close. And while they're coming up, I want to go back to the gifts of healings, because sometimes, I'll be watching a whole group of people and they're praying for the healings of a brother or sister in Christ. It's this big group. And I sometimes think, "I wonder in the spirit realm if the Holy Spirit is handing one of those prayer warriors a gift of healing, so that this person is going to be supernaturally healed today."

So what I want to invite you to do is, if you're here today and you desperately need a supernatural physical healing from God, I'm not going to embarrass you, I'm just going to ask you to stand up. And then what I'm going to ask is four or five believers to gather around that person who said, "I need a supernatural healing today for the infirmity that I have." Go ahead and stand up. I think there's more than that. Don't be embarrassed. We're among family, and I'm going to have four or five Christians come around you. And I'm praying that the Holy Spirit is just dealing out gifts of healings today, to honor you for standing up and not being embarrassed, believing that the Holy Spirit can heal you.

I'll give you a second look around. Don't let anyone stand up who does not have four or five people around them ready to pray for them. There's someone in the balcony right there. Look around. Come on, BRAVE Church. We're in the last days, right? Let's go. And once you're gathered around the person who needs healing for that person, you can share in 30 seconds what your infirmity is. You can share as much as you want. You don't have to share anything, but that will help the people around you pray. And once you get there, you four or five Christians, you intercessors, you prayer warriors, by the power of the Holy Spirit, why don't you pray for healing and let's see what the Holy Spirit passes out today. Let's go ahead and do that, while the worship team is singing over us.