1 Corinthians 12:1-11, 27-31
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 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. 11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
Paul expounds on the subject of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in this passage. The teaching of a subject does not impart the subject. In other words, teaching you about a word of knowledge does not enable you to use a word of knowledge. Simply teaching you about a spiritual gift, like prophecy, does not empower you to prophecy.
Teaching from the word simply opens an understanding of what’s available.
Q: What empowers you to operate in the gifts? How do we access the gifts?
27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? 31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts.
And I will show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 13
13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Q: How would you summarize the love chapter in one sentence? How would you define love?
Love gives freely without desiring anything else in return.
John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…
Matthew 10:8 (NKJV)
Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
1 Corinthians 14:1
Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.
Paul is disclosing a formula for those of us who want to “move in the gifts of the Spirit”:
Q: What is this formula?
Walk in love and desire the best gifts.
Walk in love and desire the best gifts.
We have defined love, so that leads us to the next question: “What’s the best gift?” Of course, we’ve already answered that one too. The best gift is the one you need in the moment you’re in. The need determines the gift.
It’s common for people to think that the one who prays for the sick is the one with the healing gift, right? But if you’re sick and I’m healthy, who needs the gift? You do.
Q: Is it accurate to say that if I often move in the gift of healing, that I possess that gift all the time? Why?
Q: Which is more useful? Someone who operates confidently and dependably in one gift of the Holy Spirit….. OR… Someone who humbly listens to the Holy Spirit for what’s needed in each situation, but doesn’t always succeed?
Q: If I operate in the gift you need and I withhold it, is that love?
The Holy Spirit dwells within me and within you. He has all the gifts. I may be more proficient in one that I am in another, but that’s generally because I focus on one more than the other. and I may desire one more than the other. We may not say it, but we often think that people who “move in the gifts” are especially qualified in some way.
The church that thinks this has embraced a worldly way of thinking.
Suitcase of cash
If someone handed me a suitcase of cash and said give this to Pastor Jack when he comes in. So I give him the suitcase when he comes in, he opens it and of course he is completely overwhelmed.
Should he thank me giving him the cash? Did the cash come from me? Or did I just deliver it?
When we allow a gift to work through us, we are simply delivering a package from the Father.
The gifts are never for self-promotion.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit are not ours to possess. We are simply messengers, a delivery person, so that God may give a gift to someone else.
Q: What are our motives or desiring spiritual gifts? Or perhaps a better question….
Q: Would you still minister in the gifts if you never received recognition for it. / Would you continue to do it if no one ever knew your name?
Looking at the list of nine gifts in 1 Corinthians 12 -and knowing the “formula” for obtaining any one of the gifts – Walk in love and desire the best gifts – What’s the next step for us?
What’s next?
I want to introduce you to something wonderful about the Kingdom of God. Something so simple it’s often overlooked.
Notice: 1 Corinthians 14:1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts ( – added) , especially that you may prophesy.
earnestly desire = “covet earnestly, “desire earnestly,” “covet”. Zealously and even recklessly desire spiritual things!
In this discussion, there is a cliche that we often use, “pursue the giver, not the gift.”
And yet the Bible says, “…pursue the gift.” But notice the priority: Pursue love, then desire the spiritual.
For lack of a better way to ask this question:
Q: How do you know what gift God wants to give you?
Answer: The one you earnestly desire.
You might say, “Well, I don’t want to pursue the wrong gift…..” That’s not possible. If it’s in the book, it’s yours; it belongs to you. If you have the indwelling Holy Spirit, any and all the gifts are within reach.
The key is that you pursue love and earnestly desire them! It’s that simple.
Our mistake is making it more complicated than God did.
Personal example:
When I first read this passage, I said, “Why not?” And I began to ask the Lord for prophecy. I sought out people who moved in the prophetic, I read books on prophecy, I went to prophetic conferences, I bought tapes (remember those?) about prophecy. This was before the Internet and DVDs. I zealously pursued the prophetic. The Holy Spirit took that desire and met me where I was and began to prophecy through me.
I’m still amazed and grateful that he found a place for me in his Kingdom.
And now I’m working on the other 8.
I will share this word of caution:
If you pursue the gifts of the Holy Spirit, he will reveal to you your heart. Or more appropriately, he will reveal that he knows what’s in your heart, no matter how well you can hide it from people around you. And he will simultaneously demonstrate his grace and love to you in ways that will overwhelm you.
Let me give you a concrete example:
When I began my search for the prophetic, I wanted people to prophecy over me. I remember one meeting at a church where a prophet had come to preach and prophesy to the people. I was sitting in the back with some friends, and I knew he was going to prophecy over me. I felt like he was staring into my soul and could see how hungry I was. I wanted to hear a prophetic words so bad and yet I was also terrified that he would reveal my sins to the people. I gave the girl next to me a pen and a pad of paper and I said, “Write down what he says to me.” And then he pointed to me and began to prophecy, and it was all good.
Every time I encountered a prophetic word, I realized God was only saying good things about me, so I reasoned that it was just a matter of time before he would revealed all the bad stuff. Eventually I realized that I was feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and that brought me to repentance and God made me clean.
The Father is concerned more for our character than for our “ministry”, and his goal is to make us vessels of honor in his hand.
