Gifted Athlete – Steve Prefontaine
Have you ever been around gifted people? Gifted musicians, athletes, or artists are just amazing people.
In 1970, I was a senior in high school and I ran a cross country race which was about 3 ½ miles. One of the people I ran against in a little town called Coos Bay, Oregon, was a guy named Steve Prefontaine. Now Steve was my height, but he ran the 3 ½ mile like he was sprinting. When the gun went off at the start of the race, Steve took off like he was running a 100 yard dash.
I laughed to myself, thinking, “Look at him. He is going to die!” Well, Steve ran that pace the whole 3 ½ miles. When I finally crossed the finish line, he already had his sweats on and was sitting on a lawn chair, drinking lemonade!
Steve went to the University of Oregon where he won every meet he entered. His coach, Bill Bowerman, wanted to get him some new shoes because the metal spikes hurt him so much. So Bill began experimenting with rubber spikes. He put a rubber sole he had vulcanized on his wife’s waffle machine on one of his first pairs of shoes. The only problem was the glue would last for only one race, so he had to re-glue the shoes for every race. He kept working on the shoe, but sadly, Steve Prefontaine was killed in a car crash before Bill Bowerman completed the perfect shoe.
Phil Knight joined coach Bill Bowerman to make shoes for runners. Today, Nike has topped ten billion dollars in sales annually. I wish I had invested in a few stocks in Nike back then. This multinational, multibillion dollar company was inspired by a very gifted young athlete named Steve Prefontaine.
Heaven’s Prodigies
As Steve Prefontaine had this gift of running, God has allowed every single one of us to be His prodigies by giving each of us gifts, but we need to discover and develop them. Gifted athletes and child prodigies practice and apply their gifts. In the same way we will have to practice. We will have to apply.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons” (1 Cor 12:4-6 NASB).
There are three types of gifts: effects or manifestations gifts, ministry or office gifts, and grace gifts.
THREE TYPES OF GIFTS
Manifestation Gifts
The Greek word energema for energy, effects, or manifestations originally described this variety of gifts. There are nine of these gifts: tongues, interpretation of tongues, prophecy, word of wisdom, word of knowledge, discernment of spirits, faith, miracles and healing. These are the energies of the Holy Spirit, or manifestation gifts, or effects of the Holy Spirit working through us. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, He gives us the ability to practice using these gifts.
Everything Jesus did on earth, He did as a man filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.1 If Jesus was still among us physically, He would still be operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He would speak prophetic and directive words. He would bring healing, miracles, and wholeness. He would have words of wisdom, words of knowledge and insight.
When Jesus ascended into heaven, He gave us the Holy Spirit, so we would carry on His ministry. God never intended for His ministry to stop when He ascended into heaven. He wanted His ministry to continue through the body of Christ.
We are all members of the body of Christ. All of us have different gifts, but together we can carry on the ministry of Jesus while He walked on earth. God knew we could not do it on our own strength, so He gave us the Holy Spirit.
These manifestation gifts are divided into three categories: gifts of what Jesus would say; gifts of what Jesus would think; and gifts of what Jesus would do.
The gifts of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and prophecy are what Jesus would say if He was still here physically. The gifts of discernment of spirits, word of wisdom, and word of knowledge are what Jesus would think if He was here physically. Faith, miracles, and healing are what Jesus would do if He was still among us in the flesh.
Because He ascended to heaven, He sent us the Holy Spirit to give us all of the gifts which enable us to say what Jesus would say; to think what Jesus would think; and to do what Jesus would do. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us think, say, and do as Jesus would.
Ministry Gifts
A second category is the diakonia gifts; this is where we get the word deacon. The people with these gifts include apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor/teachers. Sometimes we hear people call these the five-fold ministry gifts. This is what people in ministry do.
The apostle plants churches and has authority within these churches. The prophet speaks on behalf of God to the people who are mainly Christians. The evangelist speaks on behalf of God mainly to the non-Christians. The pastor/teacher is one who takes the bread of life and begins to break it so people will be equipped, strengthened, and nurtured to exercise these gifts and be heaven’s prodigies to a watching world.
Motivational Gifts
A third group of seven gifts is found in Romans chapter 12. The Greek word charismaton is where we get the word charismatic. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the grace of God poured out on our church? The word charis is Greek for grace, so these are the gifts of God’s grace. The first part, the word char is Greek for joy. God is saying when we begin to apply the gifts He has given to us, His grace will become evident and we will have joy.
Sometimes we think that God’s grace is some supernatural, wonderful thing that just hits us as spectators. God’s grace could be shown to us that way, but we are to be conduits: God’s grace flows through us as we work and move in these gifts! If we don’t, then God’s grace will not be seen. We are the ones who control the flow of His grace! And when we move in these gifts of grace, the joy of the Lord becomes abundant.
“Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: If prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness” (Rom 12:1-8 NASB).
There are seven motivational gifts: prophecy, serving, teaching, exhortation, giving, leading, and mercy. These gifts of grace should motivate us to serve one another. Every single one of us has one of these motivational gifts which will be our home base. We will see life and needs through this basic motivation.
Our basic motivational gift determines the way we approach needs and how we will see them. Every single one of us has different “gift glasses” on. If our glasses are prophetic, serving, or mercy, we will see things differently.
SEVEN MOTIVATIONAL GIFTS
Gift of Prophecy
Suppose one of our volunteers tripped and spilled a pitcher of punch. A person with a gift of prophecy might say, “You are carrying too much on the tray. The accident was due to this oversight.” A person with the gift of prophecy sees things in black and white. There is no gray. He sees the cause of the problem. He sees the sin. He sees an injustice, and he lets you know. He cuts things with a pretty sharp knife. That is just the prophetic edge.
Some of us may be like that or we know people who are like that. These people can often be misunderstood. Others might say, “Well, you really don’t care that much about people. You just look at everybody’s problems. You are just too goal-oriented; too task-oriented. You use people and you cut them up, and then you leave them to die.”
Someone like Dr. James Dobson probably has this kind of gift. He sees the principle of the issue, and calls it like he sees it! There is no gray.
On one hand, these people help immensely by keeping us from drifting. On the down side, they need to work on just being a little bit kinder. Otherwise they can become too legalistic.
People with the prophetic gift believe that their gift is the main gift in the body of Christ. So they can have a little bit of pride. Each gift has its positive points and also has room for improvement.
Gift of Serving
Now the same lady tripped and spilled the punch. Someone with the basic motivational gift of serving will say, “Let me get a mop and I will take care of the spill immediately.”
The difference between the one with the prophetic gift and the one with the serving gift is that the person with the serving gift will clean everything up to make everything right again.
This person is more apt to help another than he is to help himself. He is like a plumber who works on everybody else’s problems, while his own house leaks like a sieve with water everywhere.
Someone with this gift mows someone else’s yard rather than their own. Their own homes are a mess, but they help others straighten out their disarray. That is the basic motivation of a servant.
But servants can also be misunderstood. Others might say to them, “You have to take care of yourself; organize yourself; clean up yourself.” Someone who has a strong basic motivation of serving can have problems at home even if they are at the church all the time. A person with the gift of serving may need someone else to help him or her at home.
We need servants, especially in this church. We have a lot of people with this basic motivation because God knew New Hope would not have a building for many years; we may never have one. We don’t know. God may build us one or may not, but until that time, He knew we would be needing tons of volunteer man hours. So I am glad there are tons of people with this basic motivation of serving in this church.
Wasn’t it neat to see Pastor Rod up here with his sons Kai and Koa playing? Our families need to come first; the first people we need to reach are our own kids. In a church with lots of servants, one of the dangers is that the church will do really well, but there will be problems at home.
So one of things I want to exhort and encourage us as a church to do is to make sure that our families are doing well. The overflow of the health of our families will be our service in the church. Service should not be in lieu of our families; it should be an overflow from our families.
Gift of Teaching
Teaching is the next motivational gift. Upon seeing the punch spilled, this person would say, “I warned our volunteers before that this may happen. I hope we learn a good lesson through this mishap!”
A person with the gift of teaching relies on data and accuracy. A teacher feels that they know it all and wants everyone to know it. This person has a tough time being wrong or being proven wrong. People with the gift of teaching are so well researched, and have so much data, that they can be very boring. But they have tons of information, and they are convinced about the correctness of their facts.
Someone with the gift of teaching will have a tendency to correct other people so others might reject them. They are in danger because information and data might cause a teacher to look condescendingly on others. Pride is lurking at every corner with the gift of teaching.
Someone with the gift of teaching has to become a servant. We need teachers to give us the facts so that we do not err because we are not knowledgeable. We need to have knowledge. The Bible says without knowledge, God’s people perish.
As an example, have you ever received an email urging you to sign a petition for or against something? A little research usually reveals the petition is not correct at all. It is so easy to be persuaded by a false teacher. We need teachers who research the facts so that there is accurate information in the body of Christ.
Gift of Exhortation
Someone who has the motivational gift of exhortation likes to stir or stimulate the faith of other people. Because of that desire, these people have a tendency to oversimplify. This person will say, “You need to do A, B, C or D to resolve this issue.” So when the servant spills the punch, the person with the gift of exhortation will say, “This is not hard to resolve. Here are three simple steps that we can follow and this will not reoccur.”
These people will let you know what you need to do to resolve your own problems. The downside is people with this gift are often seen as too simplistic. They always give us two or three steps for any issue. The husband with this gift will come home and his wife will say, “Oh, I had a bad day.” He will respond, “Well, sit down and let me tell you what you need to do next time. A, B, C, D.”
And the wife will say, “Will you stop that.”
“Well, honey, it is not that hard. We can take care of this.”
She does not want you to take care of it. She just wants you to hug her.
But someone with the gift of exhortation stirs up the body of Christ. He challenges people to greater things, a better life, a higher faith, a deeper insight. This person tells you that you can do it. This person says, “I can see the outcome. I can see what we can do. I can see this place is filled with potential and what God can do with us.” That is the gift of exhortation.
Gift of Giving
The person with the motivational gift of giving upon seeing the punch spilled would say, “Here, let me buy more drinks. No problem! And next time, let’s hire a catering company. I’ll give towards making that happen.” This person uses his funds to alleviate and mitigate problems. This person gives to make a difference. We have many people in this church that have the gift of giving, and they love to give. That is their basic motivation.
Gift of Leading
The next motivational gift is leading. Let he who leads, lead with diligence. When the woman spilled the juice, the person with a leadership gift would say, “Josh, you get a mop. Sally, would you start pouring more punch. Billy, please help Mary off the floor.”
This person comes in and just takes charge. The downside of that is people perceive this person as someone who wants to control everything, to manage, and micromanage. So if you have a gift of leadership, one of the things you need to guard against is to not be so controlling: ask, rather than command.
The person with the gift of leadership is sometimes like a person with the gift of prophecy. The person with a leadership gift is better at telling and not as good at discipling. He is better at commanding, but not too good at mentoring. He is better at evaluating, but not really good at partnering. So he has to work on the other side of this gift.
Gift of Mercy
Finally, we have the motivational gift of mercy. The person with the gift of mercy would see this woman spill the punch and would say, “It is okay Mary. Why, that could happen to anyone! Do not feel bad. I took a spill like that myself just the other day.”
If you have the gift of mercy as your basic motivation, you will be more concerned about the emotional hurts of people than you will be even about their physical hurts. You are more concerned about how somebody feels and not the broken glass. The servant will just clean up the mess. The one with mercy will want to lift up the person emotionally.
Understanding One Another
When all seven of these motivational gifts work together in the church – the body of Christ – it is absolutely wonderful. But if we don’t understand each other’s gifts, can you see how we will sometimes lock horns. We may compare ourselves. We may get angry at someone with the gift of prophecy. The person with mercy may have a grieved spirit when he sees that no one else is taking care of the emotional welfare of that lady who feels so terrible because she spilled the punch. When others are mopping up and someone says, “Mary, get off the floor. We have to get this cleaned up,” the person with the gift of mercy would think, “How could you say that? I thought you were a Christian.”
If we do not understand each other’s gifts, we will have all kinds of battles going on right in God’s house. We need to understand that the person with the gift of prophecy is really needed so that we can keep our thoughts from drifting into the gray zones. But the person with the gift of prophecy needs to understand that we cannot always be just black and white, because in the process, we can slice and dice people and not even know it.
We need the person with the gift of teaching, because we need accurate knowledge in the body of Christ. Otherwise we will be gullible and fanatics, going off on things that we do not truly understand. But a person with the gift of teaching must understand that this gift is to be used to serve the body of Christ, not to let others know how dumb they are nor how wise he is!
If you are a leader, we need you to lead; lead with diligence. But you have to be careful lest you start ordering people around and evaluating their competency. By doing so, you destroy people.
The one who has a gift of mercy will be involved in the emotional affairs of others. But if you are not careful, you will be consumed with building little huddle groups, therapy groups, and sitting around campfires singing Kumbaya all day. You will have fun, but your ministry should not be to only make people feel good.
The person with the gift of exhortation is needed to stir and stimulate the people of God towards doing something rather than just sitting on their gifts and sitting on their hands.
Flexing Your Muscles
Some time ago I was watching Phil Donahue. There were three huge muscular men who were sitting on stools after they had done these feats of strength. Their shirts were off and their skin glistened with baby oil. They were wearing Speedos. They looked terrible flexing their muscles!
Donahue asked, “What do you use your muscles for during the week? Do you work somewhere? You have so many muscles, what do you use them for?”
The first guy stood up and flexed his muscles until they bulged. Then he sat back down.
Donahue repeated, “That’s good. But what do you use them for? Do you move refrigerators from house to house, or box cars from track to track? What do you use these muscles for?
The second guy got up and said, “For this.” He turned his back to the camera and flexed more bulging muscles.
Donahue started to laugh and insisted, “Read my lips. What do you use them for?”
The third guy tensed his thigh at the camera and said, “Like, for this.”
Donahue started rolling with laughter, and I was laughing too.
I thought, “This is just like the church. God gives us so much teaching, so many seminars, so many resources, so many books, tapes, and so many Christian websites we can learn from. We are huge in the Spirit, and God says, ‘Now what are you going to use them for?’”
“For this (flexing muscles). H-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h! Lord we do that every weekend.”
“Yes, but what do you use them for?”
“H-a-l-l-e-l-u-j-a-h!” (flexing more muscles).
And the Lord says, “Read my lips!”
You see if you are an exhorter, you want people to do something with what God has given to them. Do you understand the potential we have? We can change the state if we would just use what God has given to us on a daily basis, and not just flex our spiritual muscles on weekends or on Wednesday nights.
On the other hand, someone with the gift of exhortation might see things too simplistically. He has to walk with people into health, rather than just tell them steps to health and walk away.
Each of these gifts is incredibly important. When we use them together, we can work as a family of God and become God’s prodigies. Each of us has a basic motivation, and we need to strengthen our giftedness by practicing and applying our gifts. We are not to compare, but just take joy in serving through our gift. Unity comes when we encourage each other to use our gifts and we work together. If we will take what God has given as a basic motivation and begin to apply it on a daily basis, watch and see what God can do.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
1. What is the downside of the giver? The downside is that this person would rather solve problems by giving and minimizes the effects of the process by which people can work through their own problems. The giver would give a hungry person a fish while a teacher would teach him to fish. Although giving may solve the immediate problem in the short term, the same mistakes occur again and again. The person with this gift has to say, “I will give to a program which disciples people so they will learn, rather than just cleaning up their mess and leaving them lacking in character.”
2. Can you have more than one of these basic motivations? Every single one of us will have one basic motivation. We can develop characteristics of other gifts by exercising them.
My basic motivational gift is exhortation. Everything else that I do, whether it is leading, building, sharing, or teaching, all comes out of that gift. I have developed a lot of the characteristics in the area of leading, because that is what I have had to do for so many years, but my basic motivation is exhortation, to stir up the body of Christ.
One of the reasons I travel and do consulting or leadership seminars is not because I am a leader, but because I am an exhorter, encouraging pastors to use their gifts and to find the resources so we can make a difference together. So everything I do comes out of that basic motivation.
We can develop other gifts, but we will have one basic motivation. Find out what it is, and start practicing. We are indeed prodigies, gifted people in God’s eyes.
3. What is the downside of the mercy gift? The downside is that this person goes around just emoting on everybody. This person’s spirit gets grieved when he sees someone hurting. He thinks, “Why doesn’t anyone else see this problem?” He can get cynical or opinionated about other people because they do not see things the same way that he does. “Do you know how ashamed she must feel right now for spilling all the punch?”
Another example is when they hear a joke, people with this gift might say, “You could have offended someone.” If those with the gift of mercy do not cultivate it correctly, they can become a hero for the underdog, even if there are no underdogs! They have to be careful to keep their emotions in check so that they do not hurt for everybody and doom themselves.
4. How do you find your gift? You will resonate with one or two of the list of seven. Ask a friend or someone close to you, “Hey, I am kind of between these two or three. Which gift do you think I have?”
I was between leadership and exhortation. I do both, but the reason I do leadership is because I want to exhort, stir, challenge, or encourage other people to do more for the kingdom. So, I saw it was actually exhortation. Now what I need to do is to develop my encouragement of people. Many times I would rather do a task myself because I can do it better, but I have to slow down and say, “Hey, Joe, come. Let’s try this.” And then turn it over to him.
I try to set up ministries for people. I will do something in the beginning. When we first started New Hope, I had my guitar and my wife, Anna, and I would sing the worship songs. Then little-by-little, I put my guitar down because someone else could play. Then I pulled back more and more and now we have other people leading worship. My joy is that now a bunch of people are using their gifts. I love it!
Then I go and start something else, bolster that, and then move out. After awhile there are ministries happening all over the place. That is the gift of exhorting, or starting, or getting things inaugurated. So, you are an ignition. I love to be an ignition switch.
5. If you have been given a gift of prophecy, but you don’t like it, can you go to another one? For example, you prefer the gift of mercy because you like the adulation that gift brings, and more people admire you than with a gift of prophecy. Will God take away the first?
The Bible says the gifts and the callings of God are without repentance. They are irrevocable. This means once God gives you a gift, He does not take it away.
There are Christians who are great communicators or prophetic people who can be messing up and living an immoral life, but people will come to Christ through their words anyway.
The gifts and callings are irrevocable. God will not take them away. He will deal with you in your sin and your immorality, but He will honor the faith of the people who are responding to God when you preach, even if it is from an inconsistent life.
I was at a place where a man was giving words of knowledge to people. He would approach someone he had never met, “Your name is Susan, isn’t it? And you are taking care of your mother?”
“How did you know?”
“Well, God says He will give you strength.”
“Thank you, Lord.”
I discerned that something was not right, but people were getting saved and healed. About two months later, a newspaper revealed that this man had a device in his ear and his wife was telling him to whom he was talking because she had the prayer list. She used her notes to cue him on whom to approach and gave him information. He was a fraud!
When I read that I asked the Lord, “Why were these people still getting saved and healed? That man is a fake.”
The Lord said to me, “I will honor the people’s faith regardless of the messenger. I will deal with the messenger, but I will honor their faith.”
We have such a good God. He will not take away the gift He has given to us. We may keep the gift underdeveloped if we never practice the gift. It will remain dormant. There are many Christians who have dormant gifts.
We are really God’s prodigies, so I really want you to know that you have one of these gifts but you have to develop it. Developing our gifts makes us all that we can be.
6. How can we learn more about the gifts and where can we move in them? If God says you have a gift of mercy, for example, where do you think people with a gift of mercy are best used? They can be used in counseling, discipling, and mentoring. Start asking, “Can I be a care group leader? Can I teach in a life group? Can I disciple some men or women?”
Go to a Bible college and ask whether there are young people who could use a spiritual mentor. Find care groups for hurting people, women who have been abused, people dealing with substance abuse, or those who are struggling with issues like homosexuality, and volunteer to counsel, disciple and mentor.
Take a little initiative. This applies to any other gift. You can learn to teach. There are many platforms for you to be using your gift. Try it out and start working on it.
I am working with Pastor Elwin right now to put some teachings on our website. I would like to have a teaching of spiritual gifts on the website. Go to mentoringleaders.com. We will be posting much to help God’s people become heaven’s prodigies.
7. Don’t we have a spiritual gift test on our website? Yes, we have a general gift test on our website. It is a first step and it gets us to the playing field, although it does not tell us exactly what game we are playing or what base we are playing. So it is a good first step, but we are going a little further on mentoringleaders.com to more clearly define the gifts and how to exercise and apply them.
8. What is the downside of the prophecy gift? It is tough for someone with a prophetic gift because you see things in black and white. You won’t be real popular. Look at the prophets of old. They were not popular. They were all persecuted. God will give you a prophetic word about something that needs to be taken care of or straightened out. Rather than immediately speaking it out, ask, “Lord, how can I word this prophecy in a way that will be an encouragement?” You may even need to break it up into three parts:
“But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation” (1 Cor 14:3 NASB).
Your prophetic word is to stir others to a better walk with Christ, to console, to edify or build. You should not utter that word until you know it will console, build up, exhort or stir people’s faith. If it won’t do that, you are not ready to give a prophetic word. Too many prophets deliver before the message is fully prepared. It is half-baked. That is why they are unpopular. A baker who delivers half-baked goods would be unpopular too!
9. What is a gift of understanding people? The word understanding means you are able to discern what is happening in people’s lives in order to be able to give them a word of knowledge or a word of wisdom. The motivation to understand people is so that you can stir their faith by knowing they can do more, or seeing their hurts and giving them help. I want understanding to stir others towards a better life. What is your basic motivation?
Understanding includes the discerning of spirits, word of wisdom, and word of knowledge. Why is it so important to understand people? What do you want them to do? What is your goal in understanding people? Do you want to console them so they feel better? That might be mercy. If you want to understand so you can better their life that might be exhortation. If you want to understand so they recognize their wrongs that might be prophecy.
10. Are any of the gifts incompatible? None of the gifts are incompatible. People’s lack of understanding or tolerance might make them incompatible.
I have been counseling marriages for many, many years, but I have not found any problem marriages. I have found hundreds of problem people who have gotten married. They blame it on marriage, but it is not the marriage; it is always the people in the marriage!
The gifts are perfect. The problem is the people who operate them inperfectly. If they are not careful, they will lock horns.
11. Can you lose your gifts? You cannot lose your gifts. God does not take them back once He gives them to you. But you can remain underdeveloped so the gift remains dormant.
For example, suppose, as a child, you were able to speak Japanese, Chinese or Spanish. But you stopped using the language, and after awhile, you cannot remember vocabulary, your syntax is all wrong, so you stumble and are very disjointed. You are almost embarrassed to speak the language of your childhood because you have not used it. With a little work, you can revive the language in you, but it will be dormant as long as you do not use it. It will always be with you whether dormant or active and will not be taken away.
12. What about the discerning of spirits? In 1 Corinthians 12, this is a manifestation gift, so it is in a different category of gifts. We have been talking about the motivation gifts. A person with a basic motivational gift of exhortation can operate in any of the nine manifestation gifts, but his motivation would be to see what is going on in the heart so he can counsel others past their problem to improve their walk with Christ.
The discernment of spirits helps us identify what is causing the breakdown in the marriage; what is causing this person to act that way. Is it a spirit of jealousy? Is it a spirit of envy? Could it be a spirit of depression or weariness? We cannot really cast out a spirit or deal with that oppression if we do not know what it is. Once we know it is a spirit of weariness, we can pray and deal with that spirit in Jesus’ name. We can set a lot of people free because when we begin with a discernment of spirits, we can then move in with authority.
13. Can you see these spirits? No, I cannot see them, but I can discern them. It is called discernment of spirits. You discern what is going on. You discern maybe it is a spirit of jealousy, or a spirit of unworthiness in someone.
This is not just in the church because a parent could see their son or daughter struggling and think, “That is a spirit of unworthiness in my daughter. She does not feel worthy of anyone, or anything, or any privilege.” As a dad or mom, you would not necessarily tell her that she is struggling with that spirit. You just counteract it with your mentoring and discipling and you usher her right past that spirit. Sometimes you speak against spirits; other times you disciple your children past them.
14. If someone is moving in intercession, would one gift be more helpful than another? Yes, especially when it comes to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, I would pray for praying in the Spirit, tongues, or interpretations of tongues. 1 Corinthians 14:14 says, “If I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful.” This is saying that when we are praying in the Spirit our mind is disengaged, but our spirit engages with God.
There are a lot of things we know what to pray for whether it is our families, our finances, or our jobs. But there is a huge amount of things we have no idea how to pray for. We do not know what will happen next month or next year. We could have a financial setback, or a fender bender. We can begin to intercede as Romans 8:26: “… for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” So the Holy Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
When I am praying in the Spirit, I am basically giving the Holy Spirit permission to pray or intercede for me in areas I do not even know how to pray for. So I am really trusting Him to pray and intercede for me.
While praying in the Spirit, we could be saying, “I am so jealous about so-and-so. Would you please humble the socks off of me?” In English we would never pray that way. But if we are willing to be someone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit and trust Him, when we pray in tongues, we may be praying, “Lord, knock me on the head with a 2 by 4, and the faster you do it, the better!”
When we pray in tongues we had better be ready for answers because we are praying according to the will of God. It may be a whole different kind of prayer than we would pray in English.
So praying in tongues is good if you are an intercessor. Another useful gift is the discernment of spirits. The other is faith, since it allows us to see what could be and we can then pray towards that possibility. We cannot only pray against problems, we can pray for future possibilities.
15. If you have something on your heart and you are praying in the Spirit, are you actually praying for that thing? Yes, it could be you are saying, “Lord, would you help me to understand what is going on here. I do not know how to pray about this, but I am asking you.” Then begin to pray in the Spirit. The Lord may then be answering our prayer when we ask Him, “Lord, show me my part in this situation.” Or we might be saying, “Lord, I am worrying inordinately about something I should not be worrying about. Calm my heart and help me not to be so crazy about this issue.”
Remember when we are praying in the Spirit, we are praying not according to the mind of man, but according to the mind of the Spirit and His perspective on it. It is a great gift. Paul says, “I pray you will all speak in tongues,” because there are some things we just do not know how to pray about. We need the Holy Spirit to help us. Pray that God will baptize you in the Holy Spirit, and give you the ability to move in all of these gifts.
Sources:
1 John and Sonja Decker, Doing What Jesus Did (Los Angeles, Foursquare Media, 2007, 7).
