GIFTS FROM THE GODHEAD
                                                                              Part 2

THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

In the first segment, we briefly took a look at all of the gifts that the Godhead as a whole has dispensed to His Church for the benefit of all mankind. But now, I would like to narrow our focus and take a more intense look at the gifts that have been given by the third person of the Trinity: The Holy Spirit.

It is in 1 Corinthians 12 that these gifts which were first listed by Paul the Apostle (total of nine in all) can be found. Each gift is a unique manifestation of the Holy Spirit. Each one of these gifts, with the exception of 2 (Different Kinds of Tongues & Interpretation of Tongues), have been around and operating through God’s servants in the earth since the days of Genesis. I believe that as the end of this age draws to a close, these manifestations of God’s Spirit are only going to increase in ways that will far supersede what we witnessed in Christ’s day.

How can I make such a bold assumption? Because Jesus Himself said that “… he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to my Father.” (John 14:12 NKJV)

Right now you’re probably saying, “The works that Jesus did I will do also? I’ll do greater works than Jesus? Didn’t Jesus raise people from the dead? Give sight to the blind? Fed over 5,000 people with a little boy’s lunch? Turn water into wine? “Come on, how is it possible that I’ll come anywhere close to accomplishing feats like that?” My friend, not only is it possible, but doing anything less simply is not an option. It is very much possible to do a work greater than what Christ did. Not greater in quality but greater in quantity. How so? Because the same Holy Spirit that anointed this one man named Jesus to do the work of the ministry, is the same Spirit that now lives in millions of believers all over the world.

Christ was limited (Yes, I said Jesus was limited) in the sense that there was only so much that He could accomplish in His ministry because numerically there was only one of Him to go around. There was only so much that He could do. But now with the countless number of Christians like you and me that live all over the face of this planet, we are able to do a greater work on a much broader plane, because there are more of us to get the job done.

That’s why it is vitally important for those that are going to walk in their God-ordained authority and who are willing to showcase the Kingdom to the world in which we live, to understand each gift and how it functions so that we may be “…wise masterbuilders” (1 Cor. 3:10) of the churches, cities, and communities that we’ve been called to impact.

Let’s take a look at what the Apostle Paul had to say concerning these gifts in 1 Corinthians 12.

“Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led. Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.


“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”
(1 Corinthians 12: 1-11 NKJV)

In this passage of scripture, the Apostle Paul began his discourse on spiritual gifts to the Corinthian church. He felt compelled to share with them in this manner because like many of us today, they were ignorant of the purposes that the gifts were designed for. Their ignorance in these matters not only negatively affected the people whom the gifts were designed to bless, but it also affected the gifts overall functionality as well. Where there is a lack of understanding, people not only will be destroyed or perish (Hosea 4:6), but inevitably they will abuse, misuse and neglect that which God has ordained to bless and enhance.

Due to my disdain for ignorance of the Word of God, I would like to show you how to better classify these gifts for ease of understanding, comprehension and personal use. In doing so, I believe that we will further prevent ignorance of the Holy Spirit’s gifts along with their administrations and operations from spreading like cancer in our churches today. After further explanation, I believe that you will find many ways that these gifts are not only interrelated but how they have been working in your lives up to this point.

Looking back in retrospect to part 1 of this teaching, I would like to stay with that pattern of threes that I previously showed to you, (which again the number three being an example of Divine Perfection or a Divine Model of Perfection) and I would like to begin to discuss and outline to each reader, the gifts given to us by the Third person of the Godhead: the Holy Spirit.

There are three grouping or classes, if you will that the nine gifts of the Spirit outlined in 1 Corinthians 12 can be put together in. These groupings are as follows:

GIFTS OF REVELATION (Gifts that Reveal or Show Something)
• Word of Wisdom
• Word of Knowledge
• Discerning of Spirits


GIFTS OF POWER (Gifts that Do Something)
• The Gift of Faith
• Gifts of Healings
• Working of Miracles


GIFTS OF UTTERANCE/INSPIRATION (Gifts that Say Something)
• Prophecy
• Divers (Different) Kinds of Tongues
• Interpretation of Tongues

If you take a look at the scriptural passage in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul outlined some important points that are very foundational to our study on the Gifts of the Spirit. We must first grasp these truths prior to looking into or at the gifts themselves.

The key points listed below kind of operate as the rules or guidelines of the gifts that we are discussing today. I have extracted some key points and placed them in bullet form so that the reading does not become monotonous. This study is not meant to be a book rather an enlightening look at a timeless passage of scripture. You will find my notes as sub-points to the scriptures which are italicized.

The Apostle Paul went on to say that…

“There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.” (1 Cor. 12:4)
• Diversities or to be diverse is defined by Webster’s as “A state of difference; dissimilitude; unlikeness; multiplicity of difference; variety. In essence this means that although each gift comes from the Holy Spirit, each one is different in nature. They have different features and functions as Paul also stated in that same passage (1 Cor. 12:5) which is listed below.

“There are difference of ministries (or administrations), but the same Lord.” (1 Cor. 12:5)
• Ministries can be defined as service; administrations, duties; functions. Each gift has been built and designed by God to serve people in a multitude of different ways, and not just one.

“And there are diversities of activities (or operations), but it is the same God who works all in all.” (1 Cor. 12:6)
• Activities can be defined as vigorous action or operation; energy; active force. Although it takes the release of your faith to activate each gift, it is the Holy Spirit who has designed each gift to operate differently from one another.

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all…” (1 Cor. 12:7)
• This is the chief or main purpose behind the gifts having been given, so that all or everybody may benefit from their use.

“But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills. (1 Cor. 12:11)
• We are to desire spiritual gifts (1 Cor. 14:1), and to covet the use of them in our lives in every way, but it is up to the Holy Spirit to decide on which gift or gifts that He is going to distribute to you. It is the Holy Spirit who distributes to “…each one individually as He wills.” (1 Cor. 12:11); and not as we will.

Now that we have read the “instructions” and have a better understanding of how the ground rules work for these gifts, let’s take the first out for a test spin. This gift is the first one in the Gifts of Revelation group and it is known as the Word of Wisdom.

THE GIFTS OF REVELATION: THE WORD OF WISDOM
The first sub-grouping or category of the gifts of the Spirit can be categorized as three gifts that will show or reveal something to you. They are designed to give what I like to call “inside information” to the one that any one of these three gifts operate through.

I would like to begin our discussion with the first gift out of the group of revelation gifts: the Word of Wisdom. The Word of Wisdom can be defined as just that, “a word” or literally “one word” of God’s wisdom pertaining to a future event. This gift always points to the future. It is the God given ability to literally “see” or “peer” into the future. It is the foretelling of events before they actually occur. This gift reveals to us the plans and purposes in the mind of God.

Anyone that is called to the office of the Prophet or is a prophetic office holder, must have this gift operating in their lives, because all true prophets foretell events or see into the future. This is not of their own ability but the ability rather that has come from the Lord for as Paul said “…the profit of all.” (1 Cor. 12:7). This gift, when properly executed will leave those who witness its operations saying “WOW!” (Word Of Wisdom) how awesome is our God!!

This gift has operated in many believers lives since the beginning of time. It was this endowment by the Holy Spirit that enabled people like Isaiah who never met our Lord to so courageously prophesy about the suffering servant that was to be “…led as a lamb to the slaughter.” (Isaiah 53:7). Or how about when Jesus in talking to His disciples spoke of the end times and the end of the age and all of the things that would happen during those times (Matthew 24) ?  How were these men able to speak about events that they had not yet seen or been a part of? It was by the Word of Wisdom.

I promised in part 1 of this teaching that I would give practical examples of how some (not all-no one has all of these gifts functioning in their lives/ministries) of these gifts have operated in my own life and ministry.

EXAMPLES IN MY OWN LIFE AND MINISTRY
Many of you that know me personally know that I hail from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have been serving in pastoral ministry for some time. And although I have served over the years in various areas of ministry (youth, worship leader, prison ministry etc.), I always knew (at least I thought that I did) that I would plant a church in Milwaukee someday and become the Senior Pastor of that ministry.

There are many of you that now know that I no longer reside in Wisconsin; rather we now live in Cincinnati, Ohio. How could that be? What would make me uproot my wife and five children from a place where I knew everyone to move to a place where prior to the time of us moving here, we didn’t know a soul. What would make us do such a “foolish” thing? I’ll tell you what the influencing factor was: it was the Word of God’s Wisdom.

On February 28, 2006 while in a time of corporate prayer at a church I used to attend, the Holy Spirit instructs me to fast for the remaining portion of the day because there was something that He wanted to show or reveal to me. Remember, the Word of Wisdom is a revelational gift that reveals something in the future or a future event.

Well, on the morning of March 1, 2006, (the very next day), I have a dream that I am talking to a gentleman about doing pastoral ministry in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio. This was a shocker to my wife and I, but not a shocker to God. He knew all along that I would pastor a church for His Glory in Cincinnati. He just never let me in on His little secret until He wanted to. Why? Because the gifts are distributed or manifested not according to what I will or desire but according to His will (1 Cor. 12:11).

Do you recall that Paul said that “…there are diversities of operations…” (1 Cor. 12:6) of the gifts? What that means is there will be many times that God may give you a word of His wisdom, but it simply will not come the same way each time. A prime example of that in the story above is how God used the vehicle or channel, if you will, of a dream that the Word of Wisdom came to me in.

In all actuality, the Lord later revealed to me that the gentleman that I was speaking with in the dream was actually an angel who was assigned by God to bring me the message of our future move to Ohio. So as you can see here, that the Lord used an angel and a dream to administer or to deliver the Word of His Wisdom unto me.


Again, we know that the example listed above was a Word of Wisdom because a Word of Wisdom is something that pertains to a future event. That dream for me definitely pertained to a time in the future because that was March 1, of 2006 when I initially had that encounter, but it wasn’t until August of 2009 that I actually relocated to the city of Cincinnati.

Don’t box God in, He can send His Word of Wisdom to you in whatever way that He chooses. You just remain open to His flow and allow the Holy Spirit to manifest Himself in whatever way the He’d like to.

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GIFTS FROM THE GODHEAD