Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Father, pray that your word would be illuminated to our hearts and our minds. In Jesus name, Amen.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: You are a walking, talking miracle.
Your life has been taken by the King of Glory.
You may not even know if your boss knows your name or your neighbors know who you are, but you are known by the King of Glory by name.
You are a miracle.
You are loved.
You are the joy of the Lord.
It says for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. That joy was the relationship that he would be enjoying with you.
You are evidence of the greatest miracle that has taken place on the planet and that's the miracle of salvation. And you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. No matter what your past has been, his fruit, as Mike brought last week, can grow according to his nature and not yours.
But let's be honest.
Many believers say they believe in the Holy Spirit but live as if he is a distant, symbolic or inactive part of their life.
We can so easily affirm the doctrine of the Holy Spirit yet avoid the experience.
Scripture does not present the gifts of the Spirit as rare, elite or optional.
They are the normal equipment for normal Christians.
But the tragedy is that so many believers live without them.
1 Corinthians 12:1 says these words now dear brothers and sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this.
And then moving to verse four, it says there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all.
There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
To one person, the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice.
To another, the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge.
The same Spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else. The one Spirit gives the gift of healing. He gives one person the power to perform miracles and another the ability to prophesy.
He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another Spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said.
It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all of these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person will should have.
These gifts are not for the so called super spiritual.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:7 a spiritual gift is given to each of us so that we can help each other not Just to church leaders.
Not just to extroverts, not just to charismatic personalities, but to each one in this room, each one watching online.
The Spirit gives gifts to everyone.
If you are in Christ, the Spirit of God lives in you.
When you come to faith in Jesus, the Spirit comes and he begins to bring you into that place of alignment with the work of God.
Salvation happens in your heart. You don't start becoming saved. You are saved. You are healed and forgiven and put in a right place with God. We are justified, which means, just as if I'd never sinned.
But then there's another opportunity for what we call the baptism in the Spirit, which is an overflow of the Spirit. It's another moment. We see in the Book of Acts that there were times when people gave their lives to Christ, but they noticed that they weren't baptized with the Spirit.
The Spirit was in them, regenerating them, making them like Christ. But there was a need for another infilling of the Spirit, which we call the baptism of the Spirit. And that baptism of the Spirit is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within our life. It's what we call a subsequent experience. It can happen sometimes within moments of the first touch of the Holy Spirit in our life. Sometimes it can happen weeks or months. But there is a filling of the Holy Spirit.
You are in Christ, and the Spirit lives in you.
Then the supernatural activity of God is meant to flow through you.
The gifts are not rewards for maturity. They are tools for ministry.
Waiting to feel good enough before pursuing these gifts is false humility.
God does not distribute his gifts based on your perfection. He distributes them based on his grace. Listen to that. Because there are people in this room that say that they cannot operate in any gift of the Spirit because they are not good enough. And Jesus has a word with you right now and says these words. God does not distribute gifts based on your perfection.
He distributes them based on his grace.
Now, what are the gifts actually for?
The gifts of the Spirit are not a party trick.
They are not meant to give the user a sense of significance or validation.
They are not spiritual entertainment for the Church.
They are given for three clear purposes.
The first is to reveal God's presence.
I've been in many services where sometimes it can feel a little bland. And then someone has a word of knowledge. That's an understanding of a situation that no one told them about other than the Spirit. Because if God knows everything about us all, he knows the keys in our heart to unlock things.
And he can reveal those keys that through the gift of the spirit, of the word, of knowledge, and unlock a situation. I've seen that happen many times in people's lives where God knows exactly the right thing to say. But God's voice is his church.
So we're not going to sit in silence and there's going to be God speaking through this PA system. He speaks through people, so he needs a voice piece so he knows the knowledge, but he gives the knowledge to his people through gifts in order to reveal what he wants to say through words of knowledge, prophecy, tongues with interpretation. We'll look more on that in a moment.
So it reveals God's presence. The gifts, they also demonstrate God's power through healing.
And we were in the early morning prayer call on Friday morning. If you ever want to join us at 6:30, do go on our website and find the Zoom link. You can join us from your own home. Just put a dressing gown on so you get decent and join us at 6:30 on a Friday morning.
And on Friday morning, one of our congregation was telling a story of a lady, a pastor's wife, that came and visited the church in the summer on a bit of a sabbatical. And she'd recently had a diagnosis of cancer and someone in this church went and prayed for her.
She's just gone to the doctors this last few weeks and they have apologized to her because they must have made a mistake with the initial diagnosis because they cannot find a single trace of cancer in her body. Not a single trace.
They're apologizing. They would rather apologize and admit that God has done a miracle.
What does that do? It demonstrates the power of God.
Now does that make God stronger? No, but it opens up our life to believe. If he can do that, he can touch our sister Annie.
It builds faith.
It reminds us that we always try to work things out in our own strength. But when God shows up, anything is possible.
They also thirdly advance God's mission.
Discernment, wisdom, leadership, service. They're there to thrust the church into taking this good news to the end of the world.
Every genuine gift of the Spirit points away from the individual and points towards Jesus.
If a gift draws attention to the person instead of Christ, something is off.
Now let's have a quick look, an honest look at these gifts of the Spirit.
Paul names gifts like wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues and interpretation.
They're not abstract concepts. They are practical operations of the Spirit. They are gifts that are given to imperfect people.
And I know they're given to imperfect people because I'VE seen people operate powerfully in the gifts of the Spirit. And it's been revealed sometime later that they were living a double life in sin.
And we're like, how can God use them?
Because he always uses imperfect people. Because it's always as a result of grace rather than them deserving it.
Now, eventually God will not be mocked. And God stands up from his throne and says, that's enough now.
He would have given them opportunities to repent. He would have given them opportunities to put their life in a right place before him. And they would have refused and refused. And eventually God shines the light on the deeds of darkness.
But I know that the gifts are not earned. They're there because of grace.
They're there because they are gifts.
They're practical operations of the Spirit in our lives.
This church, every one of you in this church should know how to operate in at least one gift of the Spirit.
Everyone, irrespective of whether you're an accountant, whether you're a retail worker, whether you're a student, whether you, whether you're a child, whether you're retired, you should be able to access the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
And just because you have a gift doesn't mean to say you're good at using it.
If I gave you a paintbrush and a set of acrylic paints for Christmas and I gave you some paper, because you've received the gift doesn't make you an artist.
You're going to have to learn to use that.
And each of these gifts take learning and experience, crafting, understanding, how God wants us to steward that in our life. But make no mistake, everyone in this church should be operating in a gift or gifts of the Holy Spirit. That's the plan of God.
Let's look at them. Prophecy, God speaking, timely encouragement and conviction, or direction into the lives of his people.
It's not spooky, it's not vague, it's not manipulative.
It should be clear, strengthening and Christ centered.
Over the years, we've had a range of prophetic people come and minister in the church here. And you know, I have to say, when prophetic people come, there's often a need for us to discern every word that's being said. Because in the same sentence, there can be something that's all of the Spirit and something that's of them and it needs to be weighed up. I remember a number of years ago having a prophetic ministry come to the church and they said some really powerful words over the church. And I've still Got them written down and review them every now and again. But also they said some things that felt like they were off.
And the elders we met and we went through the recording and we send a letter to all the church and say, this is, you know, we're not disrespecting this person, but the Bible tells us to weigh up the prophetic. We've weighed it up and this is what we found was wanting.
And our purpose in doing that was to try to teach us how to weigh up the prophetic.
The prophetic is meant to build up the strengthen, to nudge us in the line.
It should be Christ centered.
I'm a little concerned at the celebrity culture we have today where people get accelerated, people get platformed, and there's nothing wrong with platforms. There's nothing wrong with people rising into their leadership. But I get a little concerned of our propensity to think, wow, they speak with the most amazing things that I've ever heard in my life. Therefore everything they say must be of God.
Doesn't work like that.
Even if every word they've ever given previously was directly breathed from heaven, you should still weigh up the next word that comes out of their mouth, because we're called to weigh it up. And in fact, the prophetic has often been sidelined in churches because people have been hurt or burnt by the lack of weighing up that can take place around the prophetic and therefore they have been injured. And rather than weigh it up and get the good and throw out the bad, they just think we're not going to have any prophecy.
And that is disastrous for the church.
Healing God's compassion, interrupting sickness.
Now, you know not every prayer for healing results in healing.
But fear of disappointment is not a biblical reason to stop praying.
We should keep praying.
I think I've prayed for about four, four or five people, some in this room, some on phone this morning for healing.
And I will keep praying for healing.
And I will not let the last healing that took place, and I've seen some beautiful healings take place over the last year, but I will not let those healings just allow me to have any sense of bravado or sense of strength. It's the mercy of God, it's the presence of God. It's not us, it's him.
But I will also not let the last person I prayed for who didn't get healed hold me back.
We have to keep praying.
Come on. When you come to church on a Sunday, you should be finding out some people around you who are in need and praying for them.
No, do it respectfully.
Ask them if you can pray for them.
Be sensitive.
I've known people over the years who are in wheelchairs and they get scared to come to Pentecostal churches because they just think the pray for healing people are going to be targeting them.
No, no. See the person, not the wheelchair. Right.
See the individual, see the dignity of their lives.
Care for them, get to know them, build a relationship.
And if in the process of that you find out that they would like prayer for healing, then pray for them.
But let's pray.
Let's believe words of knowledge. Already talked about that in one way, about God revealing information that he knows that we wouldn't naturally know.
Discernment, the ability to perceive what is truly spiritual and what is not.
It's an ability to divide. Because the enemy sometimes comes wearing sheep's clothing.
He comes disguised as an angel of light.
And we have to be watchful and prayerful.
Not everything that looks good is good.
Not everything that presents itself as the opportunity of a lifetime is the opportunity of a lifetime.
Discern.
Pray.
And as you have your news channels on, your phone open, or your newspapers, if you still buy them, discern. Don't take what the editor of that magazine or that news channel tells you. Oh, ask the Lord what he thinks about what's going on in the world because he is at work and the BBC won't report on that.
You have to ask the Holy Spirit and discern tongues.
There's a spirit given prayer language that strengthens the believer and when interpreted, edifies the church.
It seems in the reading of the New Testament that there are two occasions, there are two different attributations of tongues.
The first Paul said. The Apostle Paul said that I speak in tongues more than any of you. Said that in 1 Corinthians 14.
And basically he didn't mean that. Every time I get invited to preach somewhere, I just stand in the front and say, everyone's like, what?
What's he saying now? That just brings confusion.
But Paul said he speaks in tongues more than any of you. He wasn't talking about what he does when he gathers with the church. He was talking about the engine room of his life, of it's like an opening of a well within you.
So there are times during the week or on a Sunday, I'm on the road a lot. I think I traveled 35,000 miles last year in my car, plus trains and more airplane travel journeys than I remember. But in my journey, if I'm particularly in the car alone, I will Spend a long period of time just speaking in tongues.
And when I get to my meeting, it's like I have put wood on the fire.
Now we've got a lovely wood burner in our home and you can get the heat up to a certain level, but if you don't keep putting wood on it, it goes out.
And some people, they've been hot for God and they wonder why they're not hot anymore. You haven't put wood on the fire and tongues is one of those ways of putting wood on the fire. Reading the scriptures another way of putting the wood on the fire. Being in regular fellowship with the people of God is another way of putting wood on the fire.
We need to put wood on the fire. And tongues is one of those beautiful things. And Paul was saying, I regularly put wood on the fire.
I fan into flame that which is within me.
And if you speak in tongues, I want to encourage you to speak in tongues more.
And I want to encourage you to grow your repertoire.
Sometimes I try and discern, I don't know what languages I speak, whether they're tongues of men or tongues of angels, but I recognize I've got a few different tongues. There are times when I go into warfare in my prayer and I recognize a, a different tongue.
And there are times when, you know, when you learn another language, it all sounds a bit gobbledygook to you, doesn't it? And if you think about what you're saying for too long, you think I'm just repeating myself. But actually I can discern the number of different languages I've got and I've never learned them. I've always been rubbish at language. I'm glad this is a gift rather than something I've had to earn because I'm rubbish at languages.
Spent years trying to learn Welsh and I remember just a few phrases. I spent years learning French and I remember just a few phrases. But I thank God that He has given me the ability to have a message that he has given me as a gift that is able to be my way of putting some wood on the fire of my heart.
That's one function.
So speak in tongues more. If you don't speak in tongues, then get some prayer. Ask some people to pray with you if you've not been prayed for. Secondly, it can be part of a two phase prophecy.
When you might have seen this in gatherings of gatherings small or large, where someone has a sense of an unction on their life and you can feel that the tongues that they're speaking is not just Them praying. It's actually something that God has moved on their life to spill out a message. And they speak in this other language. No one knows what they said. But then God gives someone else in the gathering an interpretation of that. Now, in all my years of ministry and I prophesy words of knowledge, speaking tongues, I've never given an interpretation of tongues.
And because that's not something that's earned, it's something that God does.
But there is a gift of an interpretation of tongues. And Paul encourages in the gathering that when you have people giving words of tongues, wait for the interpretation. Don't just carry on and have five people give messages in tongues. Let's find out what God is trying to say by getting the interpretation, just quickly moving on. Miracles Healing restores that which is broken. Miracles are not restoration. They are divine interventions that suspend the laws of nature.
They do not restore something, they override something.
They do something that nature cannot do overall. For example, feed in 5,000 with five loaves and two fish, or walking on water to despite all you learned in physics, miracles. And God's still into miracles. He can still do them.
I'd love if we discover when you say things like that, that we could all take a pause and say, okay, everybody, just let's.
Let's share the miracles over the last.
[00:22:33] Speaker A: Week that we've seen.
[00:22:36] Speaker B: But the thing is, we've created almost like an academic approach to these things now where we know them, we've studied the theological theology of them, but we've not grown in the practice of them.
And God, I believe, wants to release miracles here.
He wants to release miracles regarding the building.
He wants to do something. I was reading Pete Greg's book a number of years ago, one of his books, I think it's called Dirty Glory. He tells a story of someone, I think it was in Switzerland that they had a financial need and they were gone into a cupboard in their house, like an airing cupboard. And cash was in there, made sure that no one had visited the house and put cash. No one had took the cash for a needle they had. And then they went back in. A few days later, there was more cash in there. Now, who wants that cupboard?
But God can do whatever he determines he wants to do. He doesn't fit into the ways of this world, the economies of this world.
Like what happens when a government didn't know that that money was in circulation? Does it devalue the whole currency? I don't know.
But God can do what he wants to do because he's a God. Of miracles.
But he wants to do that through people. And there are gifts in this room. There should be, on the laws of averages, people in this room who operate in the gifts of miracles.
Faith.
Faith is a conviction that God can do something which is beyond our control.
The world needs a church who operates in faith.
But many believers operate in competency, not faith.
I know things are not great in the nation.
I know there's a lot of disillusionment, complaint, protests.
I was in Westminster this week for some meetings and walked past protest after protest to get there and a few moments conversation with our mp.
And then I hear even believers talking about broken Britain.
It's broken, it's broken. It's just everything's broken.
Now, you and I, whether it's potholes or taxation policy, can find reasons to partner with that.
Whether it's the rise of Sharia law, we can find reasons to synchronize our convictions along with those statements of Britain's broken. But listen, the UK does not need the church to sing that song.
The UK needs a church to say and to declare and to prophesy over this nation that God has a plan and, and a purpose for the millions of people in this nation, that he hasn't given up on this nation yet.
And there are those who want to talk things down. And I believe the church's role is by faith to believe that God can do exceedingly, abundantly, above all we can ask, think or imagine. That's why we want to plant churches. That's why we want to mobilize you in the gifts of the Spirit. That's why we want to buy buildings. That's why we want to stir by planting, by releasing people into communities.
Because there's a hope in us. We don't want to run services, we want to be deliverers of hope. We don't want to just run meetings and sing songs. We want to see the church rise up in the miraculous and declare over their communities that God is for us, not against us. And God can do exceedingly, abundantly above any negative declaration over our communities. It's time for the church in the UK to rise up in faith, to stop singing our placid songs and listening to our nice sermons and just attending our nice meetings. It's time to rise up with a conviction of the Spirit, full of the miracle working power of God and to say, God is going to break out in this land. God is going to do what only he can do, church. It's time for us to partner with the work of the Spirit. Not the complaints of the world.
You see, in conclusion, it's not abuse of these gifts as the big issue, although that is an issue.
It's neglect that's the real danger.
It's neglect.
We should be desiring these gifts and when they're not present in our life, we shouldn't tolerate it and say, well, that's just because of who I am.
Not cautiously acknowledge it. But to desire, pursue and seek the things of God.
Jesus said himself that the Father delights to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
We're not begging a reluctant God. We're responding to his invitation.
How do we grow in the gifts?
Hunger precedes filling.
Ask directly and persistently.
Step out before you feel ready and stay anchored in Scripture and community.
The Spirit never contradicts the Word. The gifts flourish best in accountable, grounded environments, not in isolation. That is what he desires his church to be.
See, the biggest risk is misuse, not non use. Is not misuse is non use.
Let me conclude with this.
Paul writing to Timothy says these words in 1 Timothy 4.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift you received.
[00:28:14] Speaker A: Don't neglect it.
[00:28:17] Speaker B: I'm sure there's still a Christmas present.
[00:28:19] Speaker A: Somewhere in your house that you've not used yet.
You neglected. It doesn't fit into your life.
Be featured in a charity shop soon, eh?
Or maybe it's bit awkward to give to a charity shop and just sit there not being used.
Don't neglect the spiritual gifts God has given them.
[00:28:43] Speaker B: The same spirit which fell at Pentecost still fills believers today. The same power that healed the sick, transformed communities and embodied fearful disciples emboldened them is available today.
The question is not are the gifts real? The question is, are you willing to want them, to seek them and to use them?
So ask, seek, step out and refuse to settle for a Christianity that looks.
[00:29:06] Speaker A: Nothing like the New Testament.
Let's stand together. Let's pray.
Everyone in this room who knows Jesus, the Spirit of God, has done a miracle in you and he wants to bring gifts to do miracles through you.
Not just for the super spiritual, but for everybody.
What I'd love right now is a few hours for the elders of the church to come and lay hands on you and release the gifts of the Spirit.
We don't have time for that.
Some of you will need to get your cars moved soon.
Have people that you meet in the next service is waiting outside.
Can't do that.
So let me tell you a good alternative.
Where you stood, you speak to the Holy Spirit who hears every whisper of your heart.
And you say, fill me with a hunger to desire the gifts.
Come on, ask him now.
Fill me with a hunger to desire. After you.
They're for you.
And then say, holy Spirit.
[00:30:45] Speaker B: Come and in me find someone that will say yes to you.
I pray that you would release the prophetic, you'd release tongues interpretation. I pray you would release miracles and healing faith. Pray you'd release words of knowledge and wisdom. And I pray that you'd give us the humility of heart to learn how to use these.
Just while you stood there prayerfully, let me tell you a conversation I had with ChatGPT.
I was having a conversation with ChatGPT, say, having a conversation. I was typing in stuff and, and it was giving me some advice back. And I said, I'm interested in a new hobby and I'm quite keen on the idea. I'm quite creative. I quite like the thought of painting.
When I go to art galleries and I see a paint on the wall, I think, I'm sure I could do that.
And yet they're charging thousands. I could give it a go.
And do you know what, chatgpt, because I've programmed it to be brutal with.
[00:32:06] Speaker A: Me, a lot of the honest, the.
[00:32:09] Speaker B: Normal settings are nice and say, oh, what a lovely idea, but I've told mine to stop being nice to me.
And so he said, you know your problem, Mark?
You fear being a beginner.
I'm like being rebuked by an AI module.
[00:32:32] Speaker A: He was right.
[00:32:33] Speaker B: Because there's areas of my life where I've learned stuff now I've got used to how I operate, how I do things. I want to get better at it, but I'm not starting from complete novice, I'm starting from an understanding. But said to me, you have a fear about starting as a complete beginner and it's keeping you from stepping into new things.
It's right.
If you're going to move in the gifts of the Spirit, you don't have to become a beginner.
Most people in this room, Lord Jesus.
[00:33:11] Speaker A: I ask that you will help.
[00:33:15] Speaker B: Attend to that fear in our hearts, to.
[00:33:18] Speaker A: Lose control and to step into something new in you.
And I pray this church will be alive with the gifts of the Spirit. I pray so in these final moments.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Would you say something along these lines.
[00:33:32] Speaker A: Holy Spirit, come and place your hand on my head.
[00:33:36] Speaker B: And come and release.
[00:33:37] Speaker A: In me whatever gifts you want to release and give me courage to steward.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Them well.
[00:33:44] Speaker A: In the name of Jesus, amen.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Amen.
