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When we talk about "fruit of the Spirit" and "gifts of the Spirit." We are discussing things that come as a result of receiving the Spirit of God. About 75 percent of Christians today confuse the "giftS of the Spirit" with the "gift of the Spirit." The GIFT (singular) of the Spirit is the Holy Ghost which is what Peter called it because it was not earned and could not be sold by normal means. He used the term GIFT (singular) when the sorcerer Simon tried to purchase that Holy Ghost experience with money. In Acts 2:39, Peter said that the GIFT (singular) of the Holy Ghost which they had just received in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, was for "you, and your children, and all those afar off, as even as many as the Lord our God shall call." When you receive the Holy Ghost as they did on the Day of Pentecost you have received the GIFT of the Spirit. It is THE gift: the gift of all gifts. It is called a gift because it is freely available to whomever will reach out and take it. It does not have to be earned or bought. God will freely give it to anyone with faith or, to use the terminology of scripture, "whosoever will."

There is only one Spirit of God. When you receive the Holy Ghost, you are receiving that ONE Spirit. Notice that in verse 6 Paul told the church in Ephesus that the "One God and Father of all" was "in you all." When you receive the Holy Spirit, you are receiving the one Spirit of God. The Father God that created all things and came in flesh as the "one body" has come into your life. You can only receive one Spirit of God because there is no other.

In I Corinthians 12, Paul began to teach on the giftS (plural) of the Spirit. These are things that God gives you AFTER you receive the GIFT of His one Spirit. We will discuss these gifts in a moment but for now understand the difference between the Gift of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts that God gives you after you receive the Holy Spirit. One is a gift (singular) because there is only one Spirit of God, the others are giftS (plural) because there are 9 things that God wants to give a Spirit-filled believer.

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The spiritual gifts that are given to men are thus:

1. Word of Wisdom

2. Word of Knowledge

3. Gift of Faith

4. Gift of Healing

5. Working of Miracles

6. Gift of Prophecy

7. Discerning of Spirits

8. Divers kinds of Tongues

9. Interpretation of Tongues

I will take the time to go through each one and define and explain what they are. Keep in mind that all of these gifts are for the "edification of the body of Christ." In other words, they are always to help someone else, even though you may also benefit. All of these gifts involve God speaking directly to you or through you. They are not man-made gifts and that is usually the difference say between asking for the elders of the church to pray in obedience to James chapter 5 and the Gift of Healing. The Gift of Healing involves God speaking to you and telling you that He wants to move right then in a certain situation so pray. Healing is provided for the entire church in obedience to God's Word. But sometimes God uses the spiritual gift of healing in instructing someone to pray so that God can heal right then. The gift of healing then is when God tells you directly through His Spirit (not through His Word) to pray for someone to be healed.

In all of these Gifts you will have to learn how that God speaks to you. God does not speak to every person the same because we have different temperaments. God speaks to some people before hand and gives them instruction. Sometimes God speaks through people as they are talking and they are partially through the message before they feel the witness of the Holy Ghost. God has used me both ways so God can talk both ways through the same person. God speaks to some people in an audible voice, but that is very rare. God usually speaks to me through a strong feeling of “I know what I should do.” Sometimes, though, God speaks to me directly in my mind and gives instruction. It is not audible but within my mind, His voice certainly stands out. This happens in prayer and in preaching usually. Keep in mind that there is a difference between the voice of your conscience (the faculty that God put within us to tell the difference between right and wrong) and God’s direct voice. God’s direct voice does not “chatter” or say the same thing over and over. Your conscience does. As long as our conscience is governed by the Word of God, there is no harm in listening to the voice of our conscience, but do not confuse with the voice of God. God will state the direction one time, and if not followed, usually will repeat the command in the same wording and phrasing of the first. For example, when God called to Samuel as a boy in an audible voice, He called the same way three times before the boy realized it was the voice of God (see I Samuel 3:1-10). God did not change His call until man answered and responded. Today, we have many things clamoring for our attention. Many people do not recognize the still, small voice of God because of the radio, television, video games, and constant noise and things vying for our attention. Remember that if God has to speak to you through the thunder to get your attention, then you failed to hear the still, small voice speak first.

Word of Wisdom - The Word of Wisdom is when God gives you a word for someone that involves making the right choice, right decision, or direction. It usually works best when you have no knowledge of the situation. This is because when we have carnal knowledge of a situation, we usually question ourselves whether or not it is us or God. God will usually tell you to instruct someone else what to do. It is best, when you have carnal knowledge of a situation to be SURE that it is the voice of God speaking. I have known people to push what they desired to happen upon someone and say it is the Word of Wisdom. That is NOT a Gift of the Spirit. Remember to exhibit the spiritual fruit of meekness when giving people direction. I have known God to really speak through some people, and the person not receive it because of their attitude and method of delivery. Also, keep in mind that if God has given you a Word of Wisdom for someone that it is for that person, and not necessarily for the whole church to know.

Word of Knowledge - The Word of Knowledge is when God tells you of a situation or event that has happened in someone’s life. God may do this in conjunction with a Word of Wisdom and also give you advice for that person but not always. Sometimes God may give it to you just to encourage a person and let them know that God knows exactly what is going on and has not forgotten them. It is not always the will of God for you to tell the person what God has shared, so we must be sensitive to the Spirit of God for further direction! Sometimes God shares something with you so that you can simply pray for that person. Usually the nature of the event will clue you in to when it is best just to pray and not approach that person.

Gift of Faith - Everyone is given a measure of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So what is the difference between faith that everyone has and the spiritual Gift of Faith? The Gift of Faith is when God directly speaks to you to step out on faith in a particular situation. For instance, God spoke to me directly and instructed me to pray for Him to bless someone financially unexpected. That week God answered that prayer in a mighty way! I have faith that God can bless financially because of the promises of His Word but the Gift of Faith is different in that God speaks to you directly to step out in faith for a situation. With the expression of Faith, will come the blessing of God fulfilling the expression!

Gift of Healing - Likewise, healing is promised to all believers through the prayer of the elders of the church (James 5). But there are times that God will directly speak to someone to pray for someone to be healed. They may not know that there was even a sickness. Like the Gift of Faith, God will respond to the obedience of His command. Jesus prophesied that being used in this gift would be a sign of a true believer:

Healing means a gradual process of the body will take place. For instance, if you pray for a tumor and the tumor begins to gradually shrink over a period of a few days until it completely disappears, then God has performed a healing. If when you pray, God causes the tumor to drop off and the person is instantly healed, that is a miracle.

Working of Miracles - This refers to the instantaneous act of God. There is no process involved. Miracles are often but not limited to correcting physical illnesses. God can work a miracle by giving you a job, by giving you unexpected money before the bills are due, or by working a situation out that you though impossible. The difference between miracles and the spiritual gift of working of miracles is that in the spiritual gift God will speak to you directly and command you to believe God for a miracle. Nothing is too hard for God!

Gift of Prophecy - This can mean the foretelling of the future, but can also refer to a direct message of God through you in a known tongue. To “prophesy” means “to proclaim.” Sometimes God will instruct you to prophesy to someone or the even the church that an event is going to happen before it does. At other times, God may speak directly to the congregation and exhort, correct, or reveal His purpose through a direct word. The difference between anointed preaching and the gift of prophecy is that anointed preaching is proclaiming the written Word of God through the help of God’s Spirit while the gift of prophecy is proclaiming as a mouthpiece a direct Word from God. It is the difference between saying “God’s Word says” or “I feel like God wants us to” and “Thus saith the Lord God:.” In the gift of prophecy, God speaks through the mouthpiece of a man and speaks to someone or a congregation as if He were literally standing in the room. The Gift of Prophecy will always be in a known language.

Discerning of Spirits - This is one of the most misunderstood gifts even in Apostolic circles. The discerning of Spirits is NOT necessarily when you feel a person’s spirit in rebellion to God. There are three types of spirits in the world: the Spirit of God, evil spirits, and people’s spirits. Hopefully you know what the Spirit of God feels like. If not, then you need to go to an Apostolic worship service where people worship God in spirit and in truth. A demonic spirit feels very oppressive and evil. The most common evil spirits that we face as a child of God is the spirit of fear and the spirit of confusion. A person’s human spirit can also be felt. Especially when it is completely sold out to God or in complete rebellion to God’s will. When it is in rebellion to God’s will it is best to ignore their spirit. You cannot change them and God will not.

The spiritual gift of discerning of spirits is when God speaks to you and brings to your attention a particular spirit. Often you were not even aware of it until God spoke to you. I can still remember the time that God spoke to the man of God about a spirit of adultery in a person and yet the pastor and saints that were close to God had not recognized the spirit there. In other words, the spiritual gift of the discerning of spirits is when God makes you aware of a spirit that is trying to hide itself. For a preacher usually the best thing to do is not to recognize the spirit by identifying it out loud and begin to hit it with scripture. Sometimes, though, God will give you specific instructions to deal with it verbally and then we are to obey God. If God does not tell you to do so, however, do not identify it verbally but hammer it with scripture. Sometimes when a preacher seemingly chases a tangent or gets off on a particular area that does not seem to go with his sermon, he is responding to God identifying a particular spirit for him. In rare cases, God wants you to simply know that it is there and not immediately confront the situation. In those cases, I have learned that you must choose your battles wisely.

Divers kinds of Tongues - This is when God causes you to speak with tongues for the purpose of edifying the church body or others. This is NOT receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues. Usually this gift will be used in conjunction with the next gift, the Interpretation of tongues, but not always. Last year, I remember God used Bro. Tannehill to give forth tongues and it helped some people to focus on the things of God during our communion service. There was no need for interpretation in that time.

Interpretation of Tongues - Usually though, God will want someone to interpret the tongues in language that everyone understands. The tongues were given to get everyone’s attention that God was about to speak. Usually there is a deep move of the Holy Ghost and the leader of the service will alert everyone to seek after the Lord. After a person gives forth the tongues, then another person, or possibly the same person will interpret. The Gift of Prophecy is the same as this gift without the tongues given first.

The tongues are for unbelievers to be convinced that what is about to be said in the known language is from God. In I Corinthians 14, Paul gave guidelines for this gift, including that there should be at most 3 interpretations per service, and that if God impresses upon the person who gave the tongues the interpretation also, that they should wait and allow someone else the chance to be used by God before interpreting.

God gives some people the interpretation of tongues like a teleprompter flashing the message across their mind. Other people God gives them the first words of the interpretation and when they speak those out, the rest flows out of them almost like speaking in tongues but in a known language. The tongues and interpretation are usually very loud and is very different when a person speaks in tongues receiving the Holy Spirit.

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If you do not have the spiritual gifts operating in your life, then it is because of one of the following reasons:

1. You have not yet received the Holy Ghost.

These gifts are gifts OF THE SPIRIT. That is they are given when you receive the Holy Ghost. Some people are confused when people who do not experience the moving of the Holy Ghost are used in the spiritual gifts. Remember that many people who are members of denomination churches have been filled with the Holy Ghost in their personal prayer time but are afraid to tell anyone about it. My grandmother on my father's side is a prime example. Her church forbade anyone "talking in tongues" in church and their pastor was not completely correct doctrinally, but my father remembers going to bed hearing his mother praying on the porch in a heavenly language. Despite what the church taught, God responded to the sincere hunger of my grandmother. She did not advertise the fact that she had received this experience because her pastor taught that it was not possible to receive that experience!

To get around the fact that they do not have the spiritual gifts operating in their churches, many people teach that your spiritual gift may be something like teaching Sunday School, or comforting others. While God does give various ministries and use the talent of men, those things are not the nine spiritual gifts. Paul listed the spiritual gifts together for a reason.

Also remember that just because God responds to prayer for a healing does not necessarily mean that the minister has the Holy Spirit and is operating in the spiritual gifts. God could have responded to the faith of the one who was healed or someone else who was praying for them at the time!

2. Lack of knowledge or teaching.

You did not know that God wanted to use you in the spiritual gifts or that they are available to you. Or possibly you have never been taught and fully understood exactly what they were and how they operated. That is why I am teaching on them, to remove this excuse in our lives! God wants to use us in these areas, and our church MUST have them operating!

3. You have not desired to be used in the spiritual gifts.

God is a gentleman and will not do anything to you that you do not desire. He will also not do anything through you that you do not want. For us to be used in the spiritual gifts, we must desire to be used.

The word in the Greek for "covet earnestly" means "to burn with zeal." We should desire the best gifts with fervency and passion! What are the best gifts? The ones that are needed at a particular time. Notice that it does not say "covet earnestly the best gift (singular)!" We should never beg God to be used in one particular gift only and disdain the others, but we should pray for God to use us in whichever gift is the most appropriate and needed at the time. If a miracle needs to be done, then tongues and/or interpretation will not be the best gift. If God desires to speak through you in tongues and/or interpretation to the congregation, then stepping out in faith and praying for someone's healing is not the best gift at that moment. We should covet earnestly the "best giftS!"

4. Lack of faith that God can use you or fear.

These gifts are already in you if you have received the Holy Ghost! You've just got to be willing to receive and unwrap the gift and learn how to use it! It is not a matter of you earning it from God for these are spiritual GIFTS, and ones that have already been given to you!

5. You are spiritually immature or fighting the work of the Holy Ghost in some areas of your life that cause God to be unable to trust you with the operation of certain gifts.

A critical spirit and attitude will stop the gift of the Word of Wisdom and Discerning of Spirits quickly! Likewise, God cannot trust a gossip with the Word of Knowledge. People with pride and unsubmissive spirits will abuse and misuse the Working of Miracles and Gift of Healing as well as the Gift of Prophecy. Those who do not have a good scriptural knowledge of the Word of God will allow the Gift of Faith to destroy people.

The problems in the church in Corinth came from people be used in the spiritual gifts while not allowing the fruit of the Spirit, particularly love, to help govern them. If God reveals something that someone is going through, then you must allow genuine love to guide your actions. Usually, standing up in the middle of church and proclaiming what God has shared with you about someone's secret struggles will do more harm than good! We must allow the fruit of the Spirit to guide us! We must be meek in praying for miracles and healings. We should not allow the gift to cause us to become prideful. If God reveals something to us about someone whom we have had problems with in the past, we should show "gentleness." The fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit are meant to work together and help each other! Problems arise when we try to have one without the other and that includes trying to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit without the spiritual gifts to help us! We must have the spiritual gifts and the fruit of the Spirit within our lives and church!

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There are many opinions given for exactly what "the gift of God" that was given to Timothy is. Some say it refers to a calling as a pastor. Others say that it was a commission to ministry. Some believe it was authority to be an apostle. It is possible that Timothy who was "as a son to Paul," was won to God by Paul and "the gift" refers to Timothy receiving the Holy Ghost for the first time (see I Corinthians 4:17; I Timothy 1:17).

Whatever the circumstances to which Paul refers, it undoubtedly refers to something that Timothy had been given to God that he needed to "stir up." The word for "stir up" in the Greek means "kindle up, as a fire." It refers to the act of adding kindling to coals to cause them to blaze up into a flame. When we take verse 6 in context with verse 7, Paul is obviously referring to something which Timothy had been afraid to activate in his life.

Whatever the circumstances of Timothy's hesitancy, this lesson can be applied to us and spiritual gifts. Many people have the Holy Ghost but are not allowing the spiritual gifts that have already been placed within them to operate because of fear. They need to "stir up" or "kindle up" those coals that are already there and operate in these spiritual gifts!

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Some people are afraid of allowing the operation of the spiritual gifts in their churches. They claim that any operation of such gifts, particularly tongues, is "out of order." But Paul told them to "forbid not to speak with tongues" (I Corinthians 14:39). And the wise man Solomon gave some particularly sound advice:

If you want a perfectly clean stable, then do not put an ox or any other animal in it! You can have a clean crib, or you can have an ox. If you choose the ox, then you will occasionally have to clean up some mess. But remember this: "much increase" comes from the strength of the ox! The trouble and occasional clean ups are far outweighed by the benefits of having the ox!

It is the same with the spiritual gifts. If you desire to never have any problems at all with spiritual things, then get rid of them in your service and life, but by doing so you are denying yourself "much increase" that God wants to give. In brief, the spiritual blessings and increase that comes from the spiritual gifts being active far outweigh any teaching or correction that may be necessary. Remember that the ox was the primary instrument used to plow up the hard ground so that seed could be planted and grow. Without the help of the oxen, there would have been very little harvest. A church allowing themselves to operate in the spiritual gifts is able to break up the hard ground of the hearts of men and place the seed of the Word of God and reap a tremendous harvest! We must have the fruit of the Spirit and Spiritual gifts in our lives!

The operation of the Spirit of God was the primary reason that Paul had so much success in reaching his world for Jesus Christ! We must come to the world with more than just talking about what God can do! If we show the world that the power of God can give guidance and direction to their circumstance, then they will trust in the power of God for all things! We must have the Spiritual gifts in our lives!