Sunday
Morning Bible Study
August 1, 2004
Spiritual Gifts
Illustration
The Job Applicant
Back when the telegraph was the was the fastest method of long-distance
communication, a young man applied for a job as a Morse Code
operator. Answering an ad in the newspaper, he went to the office address that
was listed. When he arrived, he entered a large, busy office filled with noise
and clatter, including the sound of the telegraph in the background. A sign on
the receptionist’s counter instructed job applicants to fill out a form and
wait until they were summoned to enter the inner office. The young man filled out his form and sat
down with the seven other applicants in the waiting area. After a few minutes,
the young man stood up, crossed the room to the door of the inner office, and
walked right in. Naturally the other
applicants perked up, wondering what was going on. They muttered among
themselves that they hadn’t heard any summons yet. They assumed that the young
man who went into the office made a mistake and would be disqualified. Within a few minutes, however, the employer
escorted the young man out of the office and said to the other applicants, “Gentlemen,
thank you very much for coming, but the job has just been filled.” The other applicants began grumbling to each
other, and one spoke up saying, “Wait a minute, I don’t understand. He was the
last to come in, and we never even got a chance to be interviewed. Yet he got
the job. That’s not fair!” The employer
said, “I’m sorry, but all the time you’ve been sitting here, the telegraph has
been ticking out the following message in Morse Code: ‘If
you understand this message, then come right in. The job is yours.’ None of you
heard it or understood it. This young man did. The job is his.”
We live in a world that is full of busyness and clatter, like that office.
People are distracted and unable to hear the still, small voice of God as He
speaks in creation, in the Scriptures, or in the life and work of Jesus Christ.
Are you tuned in to God’s voice? Do you hear Him when He speaks to you? Are you listening?
Prophecy
Definition of gift:
(1 Cor 12:10 KJV) …to another prophecy…
prophecy – propheteia – prophecy.
From pro (for, forth, on behalf of) + phemi (to speak). Hence, to speak for or on
behalf of someone else.
The prophet is merely a person who relays God’s words or God’s will.
We often think of prophecy as telling the future. That may be only part of what is
involved. It is actually speaking for
God. Since God knows the future, fore-telling may actually come to pass.
Definition:
God speaks.
Scriptural examples of the gift:
(Acts 13:1-3 KJV) Now there were in the church that was at
Antioch certain prophets and teachers; as Barnabas, and Simeon that was called
Niger, and Lucius of Cyrene,
and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the
tetrarch, and Saul. {2} As they ministered to the
Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the
work whereunto I have called them. {3} And when they
had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
How did the Holy Spirit speak? He
spoke through the prophets.
How the gift is used:
1. Visions and dreams.
(Num 12:6 KJV) And he said, Hear
now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself
known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
Visions - being awake and seeing
God’s message.
Dreams - being asleep while
receiving God’s message. I hope you
don’t receive these while you’re in church.
2. Edification, exhortation, and consolation.
(1 Cor 14:3 KJV) But he that prophesieth
speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
Edification - to build up another in their faith. To help them to trust Jesus
more.
Exhortation - To encourage someone to move on in
their faith. To
get them going in the Lord, just as the Holy Ghost sent Paul and Barnabas.
Consolation - To comfort someone who is hurting.
3.
With Faith
(Rom
12:6 NLT) …So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out when you
have faith that God is speaking through you.
It takes faith to speak for God.
It’s not just a matter of having a
message from the Lord in your mind, but to be brave enough to speak it out in
front of others, to risk being “wrong”, takes faith.
Sometimes only one sentence comes until
we have spoken it, and then the rest of the prophecy flows forth. We need to
take the first step by faith.
4.
In surprising places
I’m learning that God doesn’t always work the way I think He should. I think that when God is working, it should be
accompanied by some sort of electrical discharge, or loud voices with an “echo”
effect. But sometimes when God works,
it’s so natural and quiet that we can miss it.
When it comes to God speaking, I would tend to think that it usually
happens in church, and hopefully it does happen here.
But God has spoken through some unusual ways.
He spoke through a donkey –
(Num 22:28 NLT)
Then the LORD caused the donkey to speak …
He spoke through a pagan Pharaoh to King Josiah to warn him from meddling
with his battle with the Babylonians, but Josiah wasn’t listening:
(2 Chr 35:22 KJV) Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face
from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and hearkened
not unto the words of Necho from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
God wants to speak. Are you
listening?
How the gift may be misused:
1.
Lack of validation.
(1 Cor
14:29
KJV) Let the prophets speak two or
three, and let the other judge.
A person who is giving a “prophecy” needs to be ready and willing to have
their words scrutinized.
Donald Gee, (Spiritual Gifts in the Ministry Today, pg. 50), writes, “One
of the abiding safeguards for those who wish to be true is humility of mind,
and a willingness always to submit their revelation “to another that sitteth
by”.
We may not always have a word to confirm or deny something as being from
God, but if we never confirm things,
we open the door for trouble.
How do I know if God is speaking?
The truth is, you may not recognize God’s
voice. Not at first.
When Samuel was a young boy, he heard a voice calling his name,
“Samuel”. But he didn’t realize until
later that it was God calling out to him.
The best way to learn to recognize someone’s voice is to spend time with
them, talking with them. People closest
to you don’t have to introduce themselves to you on the phone.
Another way is to listen to tapes of them speaking. If Pastor Chuck called me on my cell phone,
I’d recognize his voice, not because I’ve spent a lot of time one on one with
him, but because over the years I’ve listened to hundreds of hours of his voice
on tape or the radio.
We don’t have any tapes of God’s voice, but we do have His written
Word. The more time you spend in God’s
Word, the easier it is to recognize God’s voice.
2.
Power trip.
“Speaking for God” can be a HUGE head trip.
And a dangerous temptation. It can be a temptation to get people to do
what YOU want them to do, or even maybe just what you THINK they should do.
I believe this is part of the seduction of Satan that the Mormon prophets
(Smith, Young, etc) fell into. When Joseph
was having difficulty getting his wife Emma to accept the idea of plural
marriage, he even tried dictating a “revelation” declaring that God wanted him
to have many wives and if anyone, including Emma, didn’t accept this revelation
that they would be damned. (No Man Knows
My History, Brodie, pgs. 340-343)
A more subtle form of this abuse is when we use God as our excuse. We want to do some stupid thing and then
claim that “God told me” to do it. Be
careful about making God your excuse.
3.
Your imagination
(Jer 23:16 NKJV) Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Do not
listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you
worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not
from the mouth of the LORD.
God was telling Jeremiah that some of these “prophets” were only making
stuff up in their own minds. It wasn’t
God at all.
The consequences of prophesying falsely in the name of the Lord in the Old
Testament was death (Deut. 18:20). God
is pretty serious that we don’t fool around with this and abuse what is a real
thing.
I wonder if it isn’t okay for us to test the water to see if we’re on
track. I think it’s a valid thing to
say, “I think the Lord may be saying
…” and then let the others judge to see if it’s valid or not. I think that in my own experience there has
been a process where I’m learning to recognize the voice of the Lord.
But I do think that a “word from the Lord” isn’t going to be a thing that
you’re always “wondering” about. I see
in my own life that there are times when I’m POSITIVE that God has a certain
message for a person. Sometimes it happens
when I’m teaching, sometimes it happens as I’m
counseling one on one with a person. For
me, there’s a sense of a “definite certainty” about the message.
Discernment
The need for the gift
Jesus warned us that there will be people who will be claiming to speak for
God, but aren’t. We need to be able to
tell the difference.
(Mat 7:15 KJV)
Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but
inwardly they are ravening wolves.
I think we have a great need for “discernment” for many different things in
the church. There are a lot of things
that happen behind the scenes in life that we aren’t aware of, but will affect
us. Some people aren’t what they claim
to be. One of the funniest things I’ve
seen over the years is how some people claim to have lots of discernment, yet
they fall for the most obvious lies.
I think that sometimes I lack discernment.
I am learning that I need to take advantage of those who have
demonstrated a gift towards discernment.
I’m learning to slow down in some of my more important decisions and learn
to ask for people’s ideas. I’m listening
not just for wisdom, but discernment.
(Prov 11:14 KJV) Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in
the multitude of counsellors there is safety.
(Prov 15:22 KJV) Without counsel purposes are disappointed:
but in the multitude of counsellors they are established.
(Prov 24:6 KJV) For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war:
and in multitude of counsellors there is safety.
Defining the gift
(1 Cor
12:10
KJV) … to
another discerning of spirits …
discerning – diakrisis – a
distinguishing, discerning, judging.
spirits
– pneuma – spirit. The word can
identify many different things.
Some have limited this to strictly whether or not something is demonic, but
I’m not so sure of this. The Greek word for
“spirits” (pneuma)
doesn’t speak of only demonic things. The
word is plural (spirits), so
it would seem to be talking of the distinguishing of one kind of spirit from
another.
1.
Divine
It can speak of the “divine” spirit, as in the Holy Spirit. Is this thing
I’m looking at from God or not?
2.
Angelic
By this I mean the demonic. Demons
are fallen angels. They can have
influence over people.
3.
Human
It can have a human element, either in referring to a person’s own spirit,
or in talking about the attitude that a person has (as in a “spirit of fear”).
(Mat 22:18 KJV) But
Jesus perceived their wickedness,
and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?
perceived – ginosko – to learn to know, perceive, feel
Example of the Gift
There was a revival going on in Samaria. One
fellow, a magician named Simon, had developed his own large following of
people. But he came to believe in Jesus
and be baptized. Then Peter and John
showed up to pray for the people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
(Acts
8:18-23 KJV) And when Simon saw that
through laying on of the apostles' hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered
them money, {19} Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay
hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. {20} But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of
God may be purchased with money. {21} Thou hast neither part nor lot in this
matter: for thy heart is not right
in the sight of God. {22} Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray
God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. {23} For I perceive
that thou art in the gall of bitterness,
and in the bond of iniquity.
Peter knew that something was wrong
with this fellow. He knew that something
was wrong with his heart.
Warning
Discernment or
critical spirit?
If we’re not careful, we can fall into
a trap of thinking that we must have an opinion about everything. And we let people know what our opinion
is. And it’s usually negative. I am not convinced that this is discerning of
spirits. It is a judgmental
attitude. It seems to be usually done
for the purpose of putting others down.
This is the person who finds something
wrong in everything. Pastor Chuck calls
it the “gift of suspicion”.
You see a sample of this when David was
king and he sent his ambassadors to King Nahash of
the Ammonites to offer words of consolation on the death of his father.
(1 Chr 19:3-4
KJV) But the princes of the children of
Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest
thou that David doth honour thy father, that he hath
sent comforters unto thee? are not his servants come
unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the land? {4} Wherefore Hanun took David's
servants, and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by
their buttocks, and sent them away.
Heresy
Hunters
I’ve seen some folks be awfully quick
to slap the label of “heretic” or “cult” on just about anything they don’t
agree with or understand. I hate to say
it, but with some of these folks I tend to not pay any attention to just about
anything they say. You can only cry “wolf”
so long without having people learn to not pay attention to you.
On the other hand, we need to be
careful that when a person has the gift of discernment, that we aren’t quick to
label it a “judgmental attitude”. They
may indeed be pointing out some “negative” things, but it may be the Lord’s
discernment.
Using Discernment
1.
The witness of the Spirit
Sometimes the working of discernment is simply by a “witness of the
Spirit”. You just know deep inside that
this is right (or wrong).
1John 2:26-27 These things I have written to you
concerning those who are trying to deceive you.
And as for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you,
and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you
about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you,
you abide in Him.
You often hear people use the phrase, “It just doesn’t bear witness to me”,
or, “It just doesn’t seem right”. Though
this idea can be much abused and become an excuse to not listen to the truth,
the Holy Spirit will often give a sense of confirmation that something is the
truth.
2.
God’s Word
God’s Word gives us some specific things to measure truth by. There is great value in using God’s Word
along with the discerning of spirits.
It’s one thing for a person to say, “it just
doesn’t bear witness” but it’s another thing to point to Scripture and say,
“Here’s what God really says …”
Again, as with prophecy, you’ll learn more and more how to recognize God’s
voice the more familiar you are with it.
Spend time in the Word. Learn
what God’s heart is all about.
3.
Take time to ask “what now”?
As with many of the gifts (wisdom, knowledge, prophecy), part of learning
to use the gift is not just in receiving the information from God, but in
learning how and when to act upon it.
Sometimes God wants you to pray.
Sometimes God wants you to confront.