One of the greatest scriptures that inspires me to study is Hosea 4:6 which says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.”
What Hosea is saying here if I could just break it down for a moment is that; people are missing out because they don’t know. People are not receiving all they could because they are unaware, uninformed, and unfamiliar, to what God has for them. In other words, people without the understanding God and His word, are people who are destined for destruction.
There are people who believe that the spiritual gifts of God, is something of the past, they believe that God is a God of the yesteryears.
But the Bible clearly tells us that God is unchanging. Malachi 3:6 says, “I am the Lord, and I do not change. Somebody might say well pastor that’s the Old Testament and we are living in the new dispensation.
Well, Hebrews 13:8 of the New Testament says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.” In other words, while everything else, and everybody else around us is changing, we can depend on God to be the same forever.
So, what that is telling me is that we need to be careful of saying what God is doing, and what God is not doing in these days and times.
If God is the same today as he was yesterday, and if he was healing people back then, then he’s still healing on today. If God was providing back then, that means that God is providing today. Wait a minute, if God was raising people from the dead back then, that means that God is raising people right now.
Let me prove it to you. There are some people right up in here who has coded on the operating table and God brought them back.
There have been people who has died, and their pacemaker shocked them, and they return back from the dead. I know some people might think that it was the pacemaker that brought them back, but what we must know, and understand is that the pacemaker didn’t have any power, only God has that power.
Is there anybody in here that has been sick, and God healed you? Is there anybody in here that has been to their lowest point, and God brought you back?
It is God who has the power over life and death. In fact, Deuteronomy 32:39 says “Now see that I, even I am he, and there is no God but me; I kill, and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver, or take from my hand.
Somebody might say well pastor, if God has the power over life and death, why did God take my love-one that was so dear to me? Why did God leave me by myself? There is the possibility that God was tired of seeing them suffer in this world and God took them to the place that we are all working to go to, where there will be no more suffering no more pain and no more heartaches.
But certainly, God never changes.
The scripture says my people are destroyed because of the lack of knowledge. We say we want to be healed, we say that we want the blessings of the Lord, but then we are skeptical, suspicious, dubious, doubtful, and questioning if this is really God.
In John 4:24, it says that God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
Which means that if God is a Spirit, this means that he is divine, celestial, which means that he is spiritual and unworldly. So, then that brings about the question, where are the spiritual gifts, and what are the spiritual gifts.
First, the spiritual gifts has been used throughout the Bible, and secondly, spiritual gifts can be found throughout the Word of God:
In Romans 12:6-8 - Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; (which means with a broad-mindedness, open-mindedness and freedom) he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
Ephesians 4:7-13 - But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, He says: "When He Ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
Now when it says "he ascended" it means that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.
It goes on to say that “And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
Now in 1st Corinthians 12 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. In other words, I want you to understand what happening here. This is not about a show, this is not about money, this is not about faking and shaking, because people lives are at stake. This is not about playing any games, because this is serious business. Tell your neighbor that God business is not a play thing, it’s serious business.
2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.
3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed (or detestable, despicable, abominable): and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.
1st Corinthians 12:4-11;28-31 - There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, (and there are different ministries in the body of Christ, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
But the manifestation, the appearance, and the display of the Spirit is given to each one is for the profit of all.
Here it is: the Bible says for to one is given the Word of Wisdom through the Spirit. What is the Word of Wisdom? It is a wisdom that speaks of those things that God has prepared for those who love him. The Greek Word for wisdom is Sophia. Sophia emphases from the broader context of the Corinthian letter, which could imply that the word of wisdom (or Sophia) involves insight into God's plan of salvation and the proclamation of Christ crucified.
It says to another is given the Word of Knowledge through the same Spirit, word of knowledge is associated with the ability to teach the faith, but also with forms of revelation similar to prophecy.
To another is given faith by the same Spirit, (which means one has the ability to believe) what do you believe, I believe that all things are possible through Christ Jesus.
To another is given the gifts of healings by the same Spirit, gifts of healing are supernatural enablement’s given to a believer to minister various kinds of healing and restoration to individuals by and through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Understand that man don’t have the power, but God does. God work through men and women, but we don’t have any power only God has the power. God can heal us to walk right, God can heal our minds, God can heal whatever ails us.
To another the working of miracles, A biblical example of the working of miracles is the story of Moses parting the Red Sea. And I don’t know about you but every time that I come to church, every time that I’m in the presence of the Lord I’m looking for a miracle. Every time that I’m seeking God’s face, I’m looking for something to happen, I’m expecting God to move on my behalf. That’s why the song writer says, (I’m looking for a miracle, I expect the impossible, I feel the intangible, and I see the invisible). Because I’m looking for a miracle. Anyone else in here looking for a miracle?
To another prophecy, the foretelling or prediction of what is to come, something that is declared by a prophet, especially a divinely inspired prediction, instruction, or exhortation.
And this can include past, present or future. And I don’t know about anyone else, but I want to hear what God has to say to me. I want to know what God has for me, and if he uses rock to cry out I want to hear it, if he uses a ass to speak to me like he did in numbers chapter 22:21 let him speak to me, as long as I can hear God speaking.
To another discerning of spirits, the ability to tell who is spiritual and who is not, who is a prophet and who is not. In other words, who is hearing from God and who is making up a fairy tale story.
To another different kinds of tongues, A biblical example of the manifestation of different kinds of tongues is shown in Acts 2:4-11
The 12 disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit and immediately began speaking in tongues to the crowds.
Generally speaking, followers believe that speaking in tongues is a spiritual gift that can be manifested as either a human language, or a heavenly supernatural language.
To another the interpretation of tongues. The interpretation of tongues is a supernatural ability—distributed by the Holy Spirit who dwells in you—to decipher and interpret a language that is otherwise unknown to the person operating in the gift. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.
1st Peter 4:10-11 - it says “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold (diverse) grace of God. If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.”
To understand the nature of spiritual gifts we must first look at the words in Scripture used to describe them. The term "spiritual gifts" comes from the Greek words “charismata” (gifts) and “pneumatika” (spirits).
A spiritual gift is a special divine empowerment bestowed on each believer by the Holy Spirit to accomplish a given ministry, done God's way according to His grace and discernment to be used within the context of the body of Christ. It is a God-given ability to serve the church effectively.
Someone might say but pastor I’m scared to be healed, pastor I’m scared to be made whole, pastor I’m scared to be free and delivered. But yet these are the reasons we go to the hospitals, because we want to be healed, these are the reasons we have surgeries because we want to be healed, these are the reasons we have therapists, because we want to be healed. And look what is at our disposal, here we serve a God that has all the power in his hands to do just what we need.
Some of the doctors we go to we don’t know if they been to school or not, (there was a 18 year old boy lock up I west palm beach Florida pretending to be a doctor, who had a full practice and a office, and some patience’s) we don’t know these people, but we know God. There are some lawyers, we don’t know if they received their degree from Harvard, Yale, or in the mail, but we trust them with our lives in a courtroom. But we do serve a God that has all power in his hands, and we know that God has never lost a case.
The God we serve, and the Bible that we read, teaches us that God has graciously, equipped each of us with the ability to minister to one another within the body of Christ.
A spiritual gift is more than being a possession, instead, it is a channel through which the Holy Spirit ministers to His church.
And this is the means God has chosen to edify the church.
A spiritual gift is an expression of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers, which empowers them to serve the body of Christ, the church.
The most significant gift Christ has given His church is the Holy Spirit. No gift is more important for Christ’s followers today.
So, Paul was speaking of different ways of ministering, or using, these gifts. In other words, two people could have the same gift yet minister or use it differently, but it is the same Lord controlling them all. Therefore, they must conform to the guidelines that Paul was giving.
A spiritual gift is a manifestation of the Spirit. And a church functioning as a gifted body is a wonderful display of the Spirit.
So, when we exercise our gift in the service of other believers, it is to be recognized as the manifestation or the display of the Spirit of God. God has chosen to minister to His people through us.
All believers who have been baptized in the Holy Spirit have the ability to demonstrate the reality of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through some gift of the Holy Spirit if they would just believe.
We must understand that spiritual gifts are given to prepare God's people for service and for building up the body of Christ.
Diversity
1st Corinthians 12:4 - There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
Even though there are different gifts and different ways of administering the gifts, all the spiritual gifts come from the same Lord through the same Holy Spirit.
Start Closing:
Someone may ask the question, wait a minute pastor what about this laying on hands stuff, where did it come from and what does it mean.
Well, laying on hands is throughout the Bible:
God gave it to us as a point of contact, God gave it to us as a point of authority, God gave it to us as a sign that you have been sent out on a mission. Laying on of hands is so that people can be healed, delivered, set free and sent out.
Let me put scripture to it and I’m done.
Acts 28:8 says:
And it happened that the father of Publius was lying in bed afflicted with recurrent fever and dysentery; and Paul went in to see him and after he had prayed, he laid his hands on him and healed him.
1st Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the ministers.
2nd Timothy 1:6
For this reason, I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Genesis 48:14
But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands, although Manasseh was the firstborn.
Acts 13:3
Then, when they had fasted and prayed, and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.
Mark 6:5
And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.
Mark 7:32
They brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they implored Him, the pleaded with him, in other words, they begged him to please lay His hand on him.
Mark 16:18
they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Luke 13:11
There was a woman that had an infirmity 18 years, she was as sick as she could be, and the bible says: (And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made straight again and she began to glorify God.
And I don’t know about you, but if God is going to heal me, let the righteous lay their hands on me.
If God is going to change my situations, let the righteous lay their hands on me.
If God is going to send me out to do his will, please let the righteous lay their hands on me, because I want to be covered, I want to be Blessed, I want to be Consecrated. I want to be Sanctified, and I want to be Holy.
And that’s why 1st Peter 1:15-16 says
15 But as he which hath called you is Holy, so be ye Holy in all manner of conversation; 16 Because it is written, Be ye Holy; for I am Holy.
So, I said all of that to say this: without God we can do nothing, without God we will fail, without God our lives would be empty, it would be like a ship without a sail.
Without God:
I have no hands, but his hands to do what you have sent me to do.
I have no feet but his feet to lead men on the way.
I have no help but your help to bring men to God’s side.
I have no tongue but his tongue to tell men how he died.
You do know that he died, but he rose again. And that’s because he has all power.
Somebody say all power
