we have a great subject for you today it's going to encourage you as we continue to talk about the spirit signs and wonders and the power of God today we want to talk about the gifts of the Spirit a little bit of some of the things about them some principles about them some general principles some general concepts and then in the latter part of this video we'll talk more Pacific about each of the gifts of the Spirit so if you turn in your Bibles to the 12th chapter of first Corinthians where it is beautifully described each gift individually mentioned I want to read that for you in 1st Corinthians chapter 12 we'll begin reading with verse 1 now concerning spiritual gifts brethren I would not have you ignorant you know that ye were Gentiles carried away unto these dumb idols even as you were led wherefore I give you to understand that no man speaking by the Spirit of God call it Jesus accursed and don't no man can say that jesus is the lord but by the holy ghost now there are diversities of gifts or different gifts but the same spirit or the same Holy Spirit verse 5 and there are differences of administration but the same Lord and there are diversities of operation but is the same God which worketh all in all but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal only for profit there are these gifts to be used and I'm not speaking of financial profit but of benefit to the people of God and the Church of God and those who are seeking after God verse 8 for - 1 is given by the spirit the word of wisdom to another the word of knowledge by the same spirit to another faith by the same spirit to another the gifts at his plural the gifts of healing by the same spirit to another the working of miracles to another prophecy to another discerning of spirits to another divers kinds of tongues and to another the interpretation of tongues with all these worketh that one and the self-censoring to every man severally as he will praise God these gifts are available to us today and it is very urgent and very important that we began seeking God for these gifts and of course the purpose the purpose is to multiply the Ministry of the Apostles and of Jesus Christ Himself Jesus operated in the dimension of miracles and faith the Apostles operated in the dimension of miracles and faith many things wonderful things happening multitudes being brought to the kingdom of God and we as the people that are part of the church today members of the body of Christ want to do that the same thing that they did and be used in the same way that they were used there's always the skeptics among us you know there's always the skeptics who are constantly cautioning us to be careful and to use common sense well of course we ought to use common sense of course we ought to be honest but that's not where the emphasis needs to be the emphasis needs to be on faith that's where we're lacking we've got ten times more common sense than we have faith and so we need to be talking about faith and taking away some of the skepticism there's going to be mistakes made as long as human beings are involved and as long as we are beginners in all of this and as long as we're only practicing and learning how there's going to be mistakes made but we can if we will give place for this and give place for each other and give each other a little bit of room to practice we will begin to see the gifts of the Spirit more wonderfully among us there are those who are greatly being used of the Lord and have for some time in how we thank God for every one of them but they are all too few to few not enough only so few are being greatly used in the gifts of the Spirit and we want to emphasize that we want to encourage that we want to strengthen that and we will biblically everybody say biblically we will biblically seek after these things of the Lord and we will encourage each other I pastor a very splendid elder who is full-time in the work of God he is very zealous he has a good knowledge of the Bible but in his zeal to seek after the gifts of the Spirit and faith he did something one time that many people would criticize I had no criticism for him whatsoever I encouraged him I complimented him in the presence of our entire congregation what happened was I got a phone call from a pastor some 150 200 miles from us in Charleston West Virginia a backslider had come to his Sunday morning service she was touched of God she wept but she did not pray she did not go to the altar and repent she was not renew the Holy Ghost she in fact got up and left out of that service never ever to come back to church again because in just a few short hours she had a horrible automobile crash and she was dying they had the paramedics had picked her up in a helicopter and had flown her flew her to the capital city where we lived in Charleston West Virginia and took her to the General Hospital where they handle most situations like that she was critical unfortunately we got the word very late the pastor called and asked that we would go down to the General Hospital that her family was there if we would go and pray we was to the hospital brother hall was to the hospital within 20 minutes 20 minutes but they had called it so late the girl had already died and the family had already left he did not see the family and the girl had already been pronounced dead and taken to the morgue and put on a slab in the morgue of the hospital brother hall having license as a funeral director used his authority and went into the morgue he demanded that the slab be pulled out and this dead woman laying on it and he laid hands upon her and prayed that she would be healed in another tape I told you or will tell you about the dead being raised well you want me to tell you that she came to life that she lived again but she did not she was not raised from the dead he pushed her back into the morgue slab a dead woman and she was buried and some people would have liked to have scorned brother Hall for that some people would have liked to have laughed at him for that not me I praised him for his faith because someday he's going to do something like that and one of those people are going to come to life if he will continue to speak the word of faith and exercise that kind of faith in his heart we do not need to ridicule people like this we need to encourage them a man and that's what I want to do for you today is to encourage you to seek after the gifts the Bible teaches us that we ought to seek after though there skips search for them pray for them they may not come the moment you pray they may not come the next day or the next week or the next year they may not come in 10 years but don't give up don't let your faith waver keep seeking and asking and making it knowing unto the Lord that you desire these things even Jesus was not able to perform many miracles in Nazareth and it was because of the unbelief other people common sense yes we need common sense but we've got tons of common sense and we've got ounces of faith let's talk about faith let's give place for faith let's give faith a chance to grow and caution sure caution but we've got truckloads of caution what we need is a little more faith and the exercise of the gifts of the faith of the of the work of the Lord Jesus was known entirely to well in Nazareth to the people of Nazareth it was just Jesus it wasn't the Lord it wasn't God in flesh it was just another human being a common human being a carpenter's son an ordinary man and so it is that's what happens to us so many times because we are so commonly known by each other and we don't have the right attitude toward each other one of the greatest reasons for the gray revival in in Ethiopia is that there is such a great respect for each other when you lay hands upon someone in Ethiopia or whenever they lay hands on each other the person that is being ministered to is thinking something like this oh this is a wonderful person of God this is a wonderful man of God this is a wonderful woman of God surely the Lord will answer their prayers that's what they're thinking you know what we think well who's this bimbo that's laying his hands upon me I wonder who this John Doe is who is he I wonder what he is that's attitude problem we have a serious attitude problem and if somehow we can adjust our attitudes and our ideas toward each other there's no telling what God may do among us he wants to perform signs and wonders among us in Acts chapter 2 and verse 43 it reads and fear or respect not terrifying fear but respect came upon every soul say respect with me respect that's what we need is to respect each other in spite of our clay feet in spite of our human frailties and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles but even Jesus Christ and let me remind you that he was not just a man he was a man but he was not just a man he was Almighty God in human flesh God incarnated himself in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ was God in the flesh walking upon this earth praise the Lord praise the Lord but Jesus could not do many mighty works himself in Nazareth now here is the problem let me read for you in Luke chapter 4 is what I want Luke chapter 4 and verse 18 King picked up the scripture and read it as if he were reading about himself and he was he said the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to preach deliverance to the captives and the recovering of the sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord now the people of Israel had no problem with that scripture because it simply said that sometime someplace God was going to send a man to do something like that that kind of anointing and blessing would be upon someone it was not the problem that God said he was going to do it the problem was in the verse 21 when Jesus said and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your years the in your ears the problem was not that it was going to be done the problem was that the day had arrived for it to be done and I say to you with absolute authority the day has come we are near to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and if we are ever going to have the gifts of the Spirit it is now now is the time the day has come and if we can learn to tolerate each other's faults and payors I'm not talking about sin I'm not talking about adultery and those type of things but I'm talking about little quirks in our personality little maybe maybe we're not the best looking as we ought to be or maybe we've got some mannerisms about us that isn't exactly right we're gonna have to rise above these things and give place that men can be blessed of the Lord amen one of the problems is that we can have faith for the past and we have faith for the future but the problem is we need faith for today it's easy for us to believe that God raised Lazarus from the dead we read that in the Bible we read it in the Word of God so we believe that Lazarus was raised from the dead when we talk about the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ those who have died first and those who will remain shall be caught up together to meet those in the air that's not hard for us to believe let me tell you something you think about what you're believing if you can believe that someone that has been in the grave for twenty or thirty or fifty years even though they died with the Holy Ghost is going to come out of that grave you ought to be able to believe anything we believe it because it's in the future but if we can believe the future and we can believe the past we have to believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever and if he is the God of the future and the god of the past he is also the god of today have faith for today and seek God for the demonstration of his power today hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah one reason we get so discouraged is because we have the custom of praying for anybody and everybody God is not going to heal everybody he didn't when he was here on the earth in the Old Testament God didn't heal everybody let me read for you the words of the Lord Jesus Christ he's giving his own explanation of situations in Luke chapter 4 beginning with verse 25 let me read for you but I tell you of a truth many many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah when the heaven was shut up three years and six months when great famine was throughout all of the land but unto none of them was Elijah sent SAV unto cetera a city of Sidon unto a woman that was a widow you know what that's telling us that in the land in the time when God shut up the heavens and shut up the rain and there was great famine that little widow that that God performed a miracle for and the meal grew in the barrel and the oil and the crews that was the only woman that that happened to but there was hundreds there was thousands of widows that didn't have food well it happened because he'll I she went to her and America was performed because Elijah winter oh no you got it all backwards that's not the reason it happened at all he'll I sure didn't cause it to happen Elijah in the spirit and through the gifts of the Spirit determined that God was going to do it for the woman and that's a reason he went to her that's the reason great things happen when certain men go to a place it doesn't happen because they went they went because it was going to happen the idea is to find out what God is doing and you can do this through the gifts of the Spirit you can discern and know what God is doing I don't care who you are you cannot reap a harvest that does not exist a farmer may have a humongous combine like some of these people out in the Midwest have combines as wide as big buildings well you could run a combine down a beach like that all you want to and you're not gonna get any wheat and you're not going to get any corn because there just isn't any on the beach all you're going to do is get sand in your machinery well a good farmer knows not to take his combine to the beach he takes it to the field where there's a harvest and he reaps great harvest is he doesn't that harvest is not be cuz he is there the harvest was there whether he went or not he gathered the harvest because of his going but he could have went to the beach the same man the same equipment and not reap anything at all why does he go to the field of the week because that's where the harvest is that so it is with the true man of God and a spiritual man of God with great insight will know where the harvest is that we will know and we will be going and so it is there were many widows that were in famine but God performed a miracle for one of them but we pray for everybody I don't care who they are where they are what it is if they ask us to pray bless God we pray and we've got such a culture among us said if you don't do it somebody's gonna get angry and leave the church oh if we could just let our ministry be sensitive to the spirit and pray for us when they're ordained of God to pray for us it would make all the difference in the world because every time you pray for someone and it's out not in the will of God it's not the will of God to heal him or it's not God's timing to heal him maybe it's his timing to heal them at a later time every time it happens and they don't get their healing it inspires and adds to our unbelief some people have an altar service no matter what bless God we're going to have church we're gonna have an altar service and somebody's gonna tarry for the Holy Ghost well if it's not time it's not the timing they're not ready all you're doing is building their unbelief and we get chronic seekers who just tarry on and on and on and they're so possessed with unbelief a man and it'll goes on to say in verse 27 and many leopards were in Israel in the time of Ephesus the prophets Elijah the prophet but none of them were cleanse saving namin this Syrian naman was the only leper that was cleansed so don't let these things discourage you sometimes we get so skur aged because everybody we lay hands on doesn't have a miracle we need to learn some discerning of the spirit and some word of knowledge that we may know who to pray for and when to pray for and how to pray for them hallelujah jesus said freely you have received freely give heal the sick cleanse lepers raise the dead cast out Devils amen I've even seen the dead raised but every person I've seen that's dead isn't raised from the dead amen amen so learning something discerning and knowing the power of God we need the gifts of the Spirit all of them 95% of every baptized person in our United Pentecostal churches international speak with tongues but probably less than 1% practice the other gifts of the Spirit we all speak with tongues that's easy for us to receive why don't we practice the other gifts the Lord wants us to have it amen remember that on the day of Pentecost before the day of Pentecost they cast out devils you can cast out a devil and not even have the Holy Ghost if you know how to do it we put such high priorities or not priorities but we make such high standards for everyone before they can be used of God amen Jesus said that you would be witnesses unto me what kind of power is the Lord talking about what kind of power does he want us to have amen when we received the baptism of the Holy Ghost that's our birth certificate not our graduation diploma we need to learn the know of the power of God and the problem is is because we magnify false if someone is used in the gifts of the spirit we put a magnifying glass on them we put a microscope on them and if they make one tiny little mistake we want to just absolutely drop a bomb on them and blow them to kingdom come that is not Bible the most powerful church in the New Testament was also the most carnal Church I'm not encouraging you to be carnal don't you misunderstand me by by all means I'm not encouraging you to be carnal we've done a whole series of tapes on being spiritual and having the fruits of the spirit that's what we ought to be but the most powerful church in the in the New Testament was also the most kernel church the Apostle Paul told them in first Corinthians he said you come behind in no gift you not only have all the gifts you're number one in the gifts you know how to perform and just two chapters later the Apostle Paul says ye are so carnold I can't speak to you in spiritual before ye are carnal you're nothing but a bunch of babies but we don't make very much room for each other bless God if you're gonna be used of the Lord you better not have a crooked nose or a crooked toe or someone will beat you to death we've got to get over this we've got to grow up we've got to stop being babies we've got to stop being children and make a little bit of room for each other I'm not talking about saying don't you put words in my mouth and don't you add meaning to my message that I don't mean at all I'm talking about little intra sentence about each other that is not just doesn't suit everyone and and all of these things a man let me show you something in the book of the Acts of the Apostles that will just blow your mind away you know if you're going to be prophesying if you're going to be using the you'd better be around the church for at least 40 years and have the Holy Ghost for 40 years and have your credentials and be ordained and have a half a dozen plaques on the wall or someone to blow you away that's not nikuman that's not according to the Bible that's according to your stinkin tradition that's not of God let me read for you in the book of the Acts of the Apostles in the nineteenth chapter of Acts here is a group of believers that disciples they had they had an experience of repentance and the Apostle Paul came along and said have you received the Holy Ghost since you believed and they said well we've never heard tell of that well how were you baptized in know we were baptized by John and and after he talked to him a little bit the Apostle Paul rebaptised them over again and he laid hands upon them and they received the Holy Ghost but they didn't just receive the Holy Ghost look what else they done now I'm not reading out of Sears and roebucks catalogue I'm reading out of the Bible and it says and when Paul had laid his hands upon them the Holy Ghost came upon them and they spake with tongues and prophesied and one hour earlier perhaps an hour earlier at least a short time earlier they didn't even know that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and now they are prophesied you think about that I love it when you look at me like that let's hurry on hallelujah hallelujah God wants to bless us he wants to help us he wants to use us gifts must grow like babies when you get a gift from the Lord that doesn't mean it's a full-grown adult mature gift when a child is born it has to learn how to crawl it has to learn how to walk it has to learn how to talk it has to learn how to eat it takes years for that child to grow up and so it is with the gifts you have to learn by trial and error you learn you learn to look for certain signals amen and of course the key is to remain humble and teachable that is so important that we remain in that fashion praise God and let let us grow in the Lord and learn how to use you do it by practice you practice you learn a signal when the Lord is going to use me in tongues and interpretation or in prophecy I have learned through trial and error the signal that the Lord is going to give to me that I can understand what he's going to do in that service maybe before the service ever starts the Lord will tell me that and make me to understand that there will be tongues interpretation or prophecy he not only does that off times he'll let me know who's going to do it because I've learned the signals how did you know that brother cope practice practice the key word is practice you enlarge you press against your perimeters you don't jump from a all the way to Z in one zip and in one jump but little by little you press your perimeters and do a little more a little more a little more a little more practice and through trial and error you learn how to do the things of God how it has always been turned with me to the book of John thank God for John John chapter four and verse 43 to 52 54 I want to read for you verse 4 verse 43 now after two days he departed thence and went into Galilee where Jesus himself testified that a prophet hath no honor in his own country and when he was come into Galilee the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast for they also went unto the peace so Jesus came again unto Cana of Galilee where he made the water wine and there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum and when he had heard that Jesus was come out of Judea into Galilee he went unto Him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son for he was at the point of death then said Jesus unto Him except you see signs and wonders she will not believe now this is the way we read the scripture except you see signs and wonders you will not believe it becomes a rebuke to us you are wrong Jesus didn't mean this to be a rebuke he was not rebuking us because we want to see signs and wonders is it not right if somebody talks to us from the time we're born until we're 18 years old and the church we set on the pews until we've got calluses somewhere and we hear God will perform miracles God will perform miracles God will perform miracles is there anything wrong with an 18 year old young person a young woman a young man saying hey we've heard this all our life how about seeing a little bit there's nothing wrong with that Jesus wasn't rebuking these people he was stating a fact the fact is though you've heard me say these things you're not going to believe it until you see it and the world is not going to believe you until you produce what you're talking about if you're constantly talking about Jesus healing the sick alright praise the Lord let's see what let's see it happen let's see it happen praise God hallelujah Jesus emphasized these things to us look at chapter 20 in John chapter 20 and I believe it's verse 30 and 31 and many other signs truly did Jesus do in the presence of his disciples Jesus did the miracles in their did their present which are not written in this book but these are written why that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God that believing you might have life through his name he wants us to believe he wants us to see he wants us to perform miracles among us just as much in America as he does in Ethiopia there is one great big difference they believe and we don't that's the difference oh I know some of us believe and thank God for the believers and thank God for you that are faithful that don't believe you just don't believe things are going to happen but anyhow you're faithful to church you're faithful with your finances you're faithful with your worship your attitude is if God never heals me again I'm gonna worshiping anyhow well there is some merit in that but how much better to believe that God will do these things for us signs and wonders it was through the Old Testament there were thirteen signs and wonders in the Old Testament such as opening up the Red Sea the opening of the the water coming out of the rock in all the miracles that was performed in those days God's shutting the mouth of the Lions when Daniel was in the lion's den three Hebrew children coming out of the fiery furnace there were several probably not as many as you thought there were but there was a number of miracles but in the New Testament so many miracles has taken place what's going to be the response of all of these miracles well there's all going to be all kinds of responses there's going to be those that believe there's going to be those that rejoice there's going to be those that are mad there's going to be those that don't believe there's going to be the skeptics there's going to be those that will find fault with the person that God used there's going to be all kind of response and if I had the time I could take the scripture and show you that every one of these responses that you and I have and all the rest of us whether good bad negative or positive that that there is Bible record that it's already been done before by the Spirit we can look into the realm where Jesus is working and know what he is doing and cooperate with him the reason so many times that we labor over and over and over year after year after year and accomplish little or nothing is because we're trying desperately to drag God into our program and it isn't God's program it's our program he loves us he loves he appreciates our zeal we have the Holy Ghost we're ready for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ but we're not with God's program if somehow in the realm of the Spirit we can find out what God is doing and drag ourself into God's program that's when we see great results and see great in gatherings and see miracles signs and wonders and we do this in the realm of the Spirit we have to be able to see the invisible if we're going to do the impossible amen jesus said and greater works shall ye do when he said ye mean one single individual was going to do greater things and he did but we collectively as the body of Christ is going to do more than that one human being that was the body of Christ Jesus Christ in fact he didn't really perform a whole lot of miracles he performed some but the church collectively performed many many more miracles than Jesus did even by himself and the Lord has promised that we here in the latter rain is going to accomplish more than the early rain more than the Apostles we we guess who we you and me us with our blue shirts on and our neckties and our black britches yes people that you see the people are sitting across the table from you the one that's sitting on the left hand side you that's who Jesus is talking about even though you know them so well and you know them by the first name and even though they are so common to you that's who Jesus is talking about that he's going to do it just before his coming if we can just believe it if we can just believe it you can know the will of God you can know what he's doing in the spirit world by means of the gifts of the Spirit let's look again at 1st Corinthians chapter 12 where it names the gifts of the Spirit all of them available to us God wants us to have these gifts what do they do for us look at it and let me give you a very let me give you an explanation as to what these gifts mean first of all the word of wisdom the word of wisdom is Direction it is a word from the Lord that has wisdom in it that gives direction as to what to do in some circumstance then there is the word of knowledge the word of knowledge is information it is revelation the word of knowledge may be that you may reveal that one has cancer of the lungs or the stomach or it may reveal that something very serious or very good is going on in your life it is information it's a god-given revelation of information discerning of spirits discerning of spirits it's not the spirit of discernment or the gift of discernment it's discerning of spirits and there are many kinds of spirit there is a spirit of God there is a spirit of the devil and there is the spirit of human flesh and being able to discern they're having the discerning of spirits is simply being able to determine is this of God the action that's being taken is it God is it the devil or is it human flesh being able to discern the difference between them working of miracles it is transcending the natural law of nature it becomes the working of miracles for instance we may have some disease in our body and normally it's built into our body that we would recover perhaps instantaneously that disease would leave us that becomes a miracle if you break your leg and if your leg the bones are set properly why then of course that leg under normal circumstances would heal in time but if it happens instantaneously then it becomes a working a miracle because it transcends the law of nature and that which is natural the gifts of healing now there is a little controversy as to what this means let me tell you what I think it means I think it means when you receive a healing in your body you have received a gift of healing if you receive two or three then you have received gifts of healing the person who is healed is the one that I believe is receiving the gifts of healing not the one that is praying not the one that may be gifted and powerful in the spirit and and and miracles are performed in their ministry there's no such a thing as the gift of healing as such that everyone you lay your hands on they're going to be healed that's not what it says at all it says the gifts of healing and so I believe the sick person who is healed is the one who receives a gift so we have this promise that we will be given more than one gift of healing so that means that we will get sick again but we have this wonderful consolation that we can be healed again and then there is the gift of faith that puts you in the realm of helping people receive the the baptism of the Holy Ghost inspiring faith a dimension where you just simply believe things are going to happen and and and there just seems to be a special gift in your life that becomes the gift of faith and you operate in a dimension of faith and it inspires faith and of course many miracles happen as a result of it and then of course there is the divers kinds of tongues where by the Spirit of the Lord we speak in another language a message from God and then the interpretation of tongues is when that tongue is interpreted into our own language and the gift of prophecy is equal to tongues and interpretation combined so that without tongues there is just a prophetic utterance by the anointing of the Lord one speaks the future and conditions of the situation by the power of God