What Are The Gifts Of The Spirit? A Deep Dive In To Each Gift

Embark on a transformative exploration with us as we unravel the mysteries of spiritual gifts, offering you the tools to not just understand but actively engage with the Holy Spirit's work in your life. By the time we reach the end of our journey together, you'll have a clearer vision of how these gifts operate within the framework of biblical Christianity, from the first apostles to modern-day believers like you and me.

We set out on this voyage by diving into the deep waters of apostleship and prophecy, guided by scriptural insights and personal reflections that bring these concepts to life. You'll hear stories that showcase the personal nature of speaking in tongues, the responsibility of teaching, and the power of giving and serving within the church. Each narrative is intertwined with the enduring relevance of these spiritual roles, revealing the unique ways they contribute to the edification of the church.

Concluding this spiritually charged discourse, we examine the intricacies of the Holy Spirit's guidance in speaking in tongues and the pursuit of godly wisdom. My own pastoral experiences shed light on the often unrecognized burdens and responsibilities that accompany church leadership. As we wrap up, it's clear that the true manifestation of spiritual gifts is rooted in love—love for God, love for His church, and love for the betterment of our fellow man.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Faith and Failure's podcast. What is up everybody? A different type of video tonight, and so what I've actually been? If you don't know, I'm a lead pastor in my church and I've been since. I believe it was the beginning of September of last year and I felt a real desire to begin to biblically equip the church people, give church people tools and understanding so that they can live a life that is spiritually sound and biblically sound and understand what the Bible says about specific things that not only the gospel talks about, but that the New Testament continues to talk about. So we're going to dive in.

Speaker 1: 0:58

This is not a typical I apologize if you jumped in here and you thought you were going to be watching the video with me. This is actually going to be a very in depth study of a foundational concept of a grouping of things called spiritual gifts. And so what spiritual gifts are, is the definition is in the wording is they are gifts from the spirit. Well, what spirit? What are you talking about? Like, how does that even compute? So that's where Jesus says to baptize the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that right there, lists three different things. So when Jesus was about to begin his ministry before he had done anything. He goes and he has, he's baptized himself and there you have the Son, the heavens open up and the Father speaks and then, descending like a dove, you have the spirit coming down. That right, there is an example of the spirit coming upon someone. So why did Jesus do that? Jesus wanted to live his life and fulfill his ministry in such a way that if anybody had questions of what was available or how to live their Christian life, they could look to Jesus and be able to say this is right or this is not biblical. So when we say spiritual gifts, paul had a large part to play in this, in more of an understanding of the spiritual gifts.

Speaker 1: 2:34

So we have in Acts, chapter one, verse eight, we have where Jesus said to his disciples he said you will receive power when the spirit comes upon you, and so if you have a red letter Bible, I suggest, if you don't have, that, I suggest a red letter Bible. And what that means is when there's something in red letters and the text is red, whether you're doing it on an app or you're doing it in a physical paper Bible which some of you young ones you may not know that exists. But paper is a thing where it has letters on it. I'm just kidding, I know you'll probably know what that is. You've seen them in museums. You read the very words of Jesus and it's in red letters. So it's pretty cool. It makes it. I prefer anything I study or read in red letter because I want to know when Jesus is talking. So red letter Bible it means that Jesus's words are in red. So they they stand out from anybody else speaking.

Speaker 1: 3:30

So in Acts one eight, jesus promises and then, before he goes and he leaves and he ascends to the father, he says I must go so that the spirit may come, because there had not been a spiritual downpour. Now, through the Old Testament, there has been multiple times where the spirit of God would move on, a profit and something miraculous would happen, but it always would would happen to a singular person and there was never a downpour or outpouring to where anybody could have what the spirit had to offer available to them. So it made it very different. Not only did Jesus completely not nullify or or diminish the old covenant, but he fulfilled it in a way that was a permanent fulfillment. So he was the ultimate sacrifice, he was the spotless lamb that no longer do we have to thank God because some of us can't even hunt. We don't want to gut the deer or but Peter would have a craze they have a lot of material to work with on on that if we still had to sacrifice today. But that's what you had to do. You had to get the best, even if you had crops, the best of your crops, bird that didn't have a blemish, or a goat, or a lamb, or whatever you had available to you. It was required for sacrifice, for your sins, to be a sacrifice that the Bible says it was a sweet smell to the nostrils of God. Jesus came on the scene. When Jesus came on the scene, things began to shift.

Speaker 1: 5:08

So people are like well, you know, why did God do it then? Why didn't he do it now? Why, you know? There's all kinds of wise. And first of all, here's the thing If you maybe are a baby Christian or maybe you don't believe in the scripture at all and you're just kind of like I don't know what's true, what's not true, okay, this is the smart way to live your life and to study the word. Yes, the word is a place for a lot of answers in life. But we also must be comfortable enough to not have all the answers. But what do I mean by that? There may be some serious answers that you are, serious questions that you may never ever have the answer to until you see God face to face. Just because God doesn't answer you or give you the answer you want does not mean he's any less of a gracious God. It's just. We have to be.

Speaker 1: 5:59

The Bible even tells us that we prophesy in part, like even people that prophesy. They don't always have the whole picture. Sometimes it seems vague, sometimes it seems like that doesn't really, that doesn't compute, that doesn't make any sense, but it will speak to somebody else and it will be something to somebody else. So we have to understand that it's not. You got to stop making everything about you that you have to understand and you have to have a label for it and you have to. You have to know exactly what everything is. That seems like a cop out answer, but if you take God off of the table, if you take the spirit off the table, you take the Bible off the table, you have zero certainty in your life at all, like there's no difference, like the Bible tells us and I'm going to quote the Bible coming from a pastor, coming from a Christian that we're not guaranteed tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 6:47

So why is it that we blame God and we throw all these accusations at God, like why didn't you? If you're so good, why didn't you stop this evil over here? If you pull God out of the picture, nothing changes. It's still the same. People are evil, a heart is deceiving. It doesn't change anything at all, but yet we want to blame God. We want to throw every accusation we can at God and say well, why didn't you come down and do this? If there is a God there, you would do this and you would do that.

Speaker 1: 7:16

As a person who studies the Bible constantly in any way I can podcasts, reading, praying, whatever it is I do not have a solid answer except he is God and I am not, and I have to be okay with that. I have to be okay with that. That's not a cop out answer. There's no certainty in the life without God, but there is a lot more certainty in the life with God. I promise you that. So I want you to say we're going to do an in-depth Bible study in this, and the first the way I do it when I preach is I do a kind of a key text to open up, and first Corinthians, chapter 12, four through six, and 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. So we're going to break down the gifts today.

Speaker 1: 8:22

So, like I told you in the beginning, I've been crawling. I think I've finally wrapped up and finished the series I've been doing at church on the gifts of the spirit, and so in this crawling through the scripture, I didn't want to just run past some things. I want to, especially the big questions, like the two of the biggest. The biggest questions that people have is speaking in tongues and prophecy. That's two of the main questions and the biggest one is probably more than prophecy, of speaking in tongues, because it doesn't make sense, it could be confusing and it could even be a little weird. It would just be an honest. Like I told my church this when I did a two weeks focus point on this topic of speaking in tongues I don't know why God chose to do it the way he did. I have no clue, but I just know that he did no-transcript walk through it, kind of crawl through it.

Speaker 1: 9:17

People are scared of speaking in tongues and, if you think about it, before I ever spoke in tongues and I have spoken tongues and I say this to my church and I want you to hear me, is that there, if you have or have not, there is not varsity Christians and there's not JV Christians. Okay, there's not super spiritual, highly blessed and favored Christians, and then those that are just like well, you're just here to serve you. Don't get anything that right. There is a man-made way to split the gifts up, that some are better than others in this and that, and we all start trying to say who's better. Well, paul will be writing us a letter today because we're gonna look at some of the scriptures Paul wrote, and he wrote about people using the spiritual gifts as personal gratification, and God does not desire that at all. He wants us to use the spiritual gifts for the body, every single gift for the body, and so we're gonna be breaking down some of these. Now.

Speaker 1: 10:21

The main question in the title of this video, in the title of this live stream is. If you're watching live today or you're watching later on, do me a huge favor, go over to YouTube and please subscribe to the channel. Also, if you look down below in the, I think on Facebook it actually may be above. On YouTube it's below, but in the notes you can see where. If you want to donate a $5 gift or whatever, or if you use a Amazon, you can shop on Amazon through my affiliate links and it gives a little kickback at no extra cost to you. That would greatly help out the channel. Just letting you know it's down there If you ever feel led by the Lord.

Speaker 1: 11:01

I don't want you to give out of occupation or me trying to twist your arm. I want you to pray, say God, where do you want my money to go? And if it just so happens, it goes my way. Hey, praise the Lord. So I want to break down the gifts and I want you to understand these gifts. I want you to have an understanding of the gifts.

Speaker 1: 11:18

Now the reason a lot of people in churches, a lot of people in private, like don't we live our lives and our jobs and we forget to include the spirit. Now, what does that mean to even include the spirit. Well, bible tells us that before Christ our heart was made of stone and when Jesus washes us, cleanses us, saves us, that we become now a heart of flesh and his blood that he shed for us as the atonement for our sins, how we have been grafted in to the bloodline of the Father and so we become sons and daughters of God, which is a pretty amazing transformation. If you've ever seen it, like me personally, my story I used to be a meth head living on the streets, womanized. I've been divorced. I've thank God, I didn't end up with any more children. I don't know how in the world that happened, but thank the Lord. And there was a time in my life where if I would have died right then I would have split hell wide open because I was not living a life I should have been living. I was living a life of flesh. So if you read in the New Testament, especially in Acts, where after they come out of the upper room, they pray for people and they lay hands on people and people receive salvation, they repent from what they were doing and they turn and they begin to speak in other languages, thousands of people, in the account of Acts, that they were laid hands on them, and they begin to speak in other languages. Now I don't know about you, but that's pretty cool, and speaking in tongues is weird for a lot of people Talking about the spirit, especially like King James.

Speaker 1: 13:00

I think King James might be the only translation that says holy ghost, gotta put that Pentecostal On the end of it, but I think it's the only translation that actually use ghost. So I use spirit a lot, because spirit doesn't creep people out as much. You say ghost, they automatically go to like Halloween and Fright Night. You know what I mean. So I say spirit. Spirit makes more sense.

Speaker 1: 13:20

The Bible calls God spirit. He tells us to worship him in spirit and in truth. So, that being said, it's important for you. Like Paul says, we must kill our flesh daily and walk by the spirit, not by your spirit, but by an indwelling of the spirit, and it changes things. It changes things and here, in our key verse, it says there are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same. I'll make it on the screen, because you get the same and different kinds of services, but we serve the same Lord. Sorry, I skipped it. Spiritual gifts, but the same spirit is the source of them all. So there's one spirit that gives multiple gifts. There's one spirit that came down on the day of Pentecost, the next chapter two, and they were filled with the spirit. There was something that came down that was not there before, so much so that it appeared on their heads as tongues of fire, which is crazy. So we're gonna talk about this.

Speaker 1: 14:23

Let's look on this. So the gifts of the spirit are varied, but each gift is unique, but it also overlaps. Okay, each are unique but they also overlap. So let's look at this. Gifts of the spirit. So what are the gifts of the spirit? So we're actually gonna crawl through, and this is kind of the first of a. I don't know how long this series is gonna go of each episode, but I wanna crawl through this with you, like I did with my church, because I feel for some reason in Canada my YouTube channel I'm really popular in Canada. I don't know why, but Canada and Europe is like a massive following and I've never done any ads there, I've never even been there, but for some reason, them Canadians, they liked some Jesus and faith and failures.

Speaker 1: 15:12

But to get to the spirit, we wanna walk through what that is. So first you have a apostleship. Okay, ephesians, chapter four, verse 11 and 12. Okay, if you wanna, while you're watching online, if you wanna turn your phone sideways, if you're not already in, screenshot this so you can look at it later. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church.

Speaker 1: 15:33

The apostles, prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers, all right. Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. So, apostles, let's break this down. The apostles I'm not a big fan and this is just personal preference. I'm not a big fan of someone who says they are apostle or whatever. Like they name themself that and they say their name. But, that being said, if someone is an apostle, they are a person that does not stay at one church and preach. They're not the pastor, they're not a teacher in a church. They actually go out and they do kinda.

Speaker 1: 16:16

If you read what Paul was and what he did, they do exactly that. The apostle Paul he went out, he was sent forth. He went out to establish the church in places it was not established. He was out in multiple places, writing multiple letters in different circumstances. He was not a person that stayed in one town. Evangelists would be a good idea of a label. But the apostle is one that goes out and is sent forth. Sent forth, establish and build churches, pioneering the gospel. This is what Paul did. He pioneered the new gospel of Jesus Christ. If you remember, paul was on the road. He was blinded and a voice said saw, why are you persecuting me? He was blinded. A great light shone around. The men with him did not see anything, but they heard the voice Talk about a spooky encounter. So a apostle ship goes out, they are sent forth to establish and they like kinda church planter, would we have a guy in our denomination? His name is Terry Cross and he's very gifted in church planning. He knows how to get him started in homes go out canvas to community, bring them in, and God has used him in that way. So by definition, this guy would be called an apostle.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Then we have let's go over to our next one. Then we have prophecy. So look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, I'm sorry, chapter 12, verse 10. And it says he gives one person the power to perform miracles and another ability to prophesy. So in this right here, in this one verse in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, come on, I'll keep saying 10, chapter 12, verse 10, he gives one person the power to perform miracles.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Now, miracles, was that miracles and prophecy? I think the reason that it was grouped here together is because a lot of times, especially in the Old Testament, you would have I'm unpackaged you would have prophets that would prophesy, and it was almost like a state of validity to who they were. They would also perform miracles. So you have a live Jeremiah. You have even Daniel. I would consider. Shout out to me, check in a minute ago, probably prophets, I don't, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:41

Miracles surrounded those people who stood for God Like that. That was a sign that God was with them. That was a sign that God was covering them. That was a sign that they that God was real. Okay, oh, we have another scripture that says signs and wonders will follow those that believe. So what does that mean? Well, if you read this now, think about this. All the scriptures we're reading here today are pulled directly from the New Testament. Now I want you to think about this. Jesus had already ascended.

Speaker 1: 19:16

The downpouring and the indwelling of the spirit was poured out in Acts, chapter two, and it was a singular event. It was like a funnel that just came down in that one room and went out and all of a sudden, as they went, so did the power, and I don't understand why God did it this way. Like I mean, in reality he could have just come completely at once, saturated the earth and then went that way, but he decided to use those who have been faithful and who have followed along Jesus to, not only because they were directly contacted, influenced and taught by the Messiah, and so it solidified, verified who they were, it affirmed that they had something different than just regular church people in the synagogue. They all of a sudden had this power. There's something tangible that even shadows and at one point Paul's sweat rag, which is disgusting but was passed around like a healing cloth thing and people were healed. Things begin to happen. I don't know why God does it this way, but I do know that there is scripture after scripture of instances where, for some reason, it's done in such a way that it can only be a miraculous sign from God. It's a pretty cool thing. So this is as we read.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Who Paul's writing to right here is church people. Now think about this. Some people want to say, and they're called cessationists, which means they believe that the gifts had ceased. I'm a continuationist. I believe that it has continued. But the church people that Paul is writing to? They were not there. They were not apostles, they were not disciples, they were not a part of the 12, they weren't even a part of the 72 that didn't have direct contact with Jesus. These people that he writes to had no direct contact.

Speaker 1: 21:15

How do I know that Jesus specifically came to deliver and save the Jews? As a matter of fact, jesus' instructions to the disciples was to only preach to the Jews, because then, after the day of Pentecost, that's when they were instructed to then go and preach to the Gentiles and the spirit broke out. And when I say the spirit broke out, I'm talking about speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues happened after Jesus left. The spirit came down and it proved that Gentiles which, if you're not Jewish, that's us, that's everybody else that Gentiles could receive the same thing that the Jews had. It was an outward expression of God's love and redemption for the Gentiles. So none of these people in the church of Corinth were directly attached to and Paul himself was not in the upper room. Yet we read later that he tells them I speak in tongues more than all of you. So I'm not saying that I'm not a part of the Gentiles. That was something pretty amazing If it died out with the disciples, and this is a big argument.

Speaker 1: 22:24

This is why I keep bringing it up. It's a big argument in this space, because if it did die down with them, if it did die out with them, then why would Paul be writing and giving instruction to people abusing these gifts? It's obvious that they had gifts, but they were being fleshly about it. So even in their flesh, they were still bestowed with gifts of the spirit, and prophecy and performing of miracles was among those. So let's go on Evangelism, ephesians, chapter four, verse 11.

Speaker 1: 22:58

Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church the apostles, the prophets and we just read this one minute ago, but at this time we're gonna break each one down the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists and the pastors and teachers. So prophecy involves speaking God's truth into the present, offering encouragement, offering correction and offering direction. So you'll see, if you are in a church that is active in these gifts and you hear somebody like loudly speaking tongues, okay. Well, if they are loudly projecting the gift of tongues and they are being active in that gift, soon to follow should be the interpretation of tongues. And so this is where some of the overlap happens in the gift of the spirit is that you will have a gift of tongues and then a gift of interpretation, and oftentimes that gift of interpretation is overlapped and directly influenced and fueled by the gift of prophecy. It's also, it can be the gift of you can overlap these teaching. You're teaching the people something, you are saying what God desires for them, which is you're learning something, so you're being taught. So the gift of prophecy.

Speaker 1: 24:12

Next we have shepherding, or this is also pastoring. This is the one of the ones I do and teaching as well. And sometimes when I preach and this is kind of a cool little thing if someone's being led by the spirit I've been told many times and trust me when I say this if I'm a humility perspective, a humble perspective, I will go off my notes and be preaching the majority of the time. When I go off my notes and I'm preaching and I feel it sounds so weird me saying it, I never want anybody to look at me or glorify me. So here in my heart when I say this, I will speak things out and I will as if it was a point in my notes, if that makes sense. So it's like a subtext to what I just said or something. And after the service, people will come up to me and they will say you literally said exactly to the topic or issue I had in the vehicle on the way to church this morning.

Speaker 1: 25:17

Now, listen to me, that is not me saying that. That is the spirit speaking through me. Now, if you are a Christian or maybe a new Christian or you have no clue what's going on, god desires for us to be vessels. He desires for us to repent and turn from who we were and to submit ourselves fully over to him. So in me speaking that out, I have to be available in that capacity. I have to completely empty myself out and say God, whatever you desire for me to speak today, speak it through me. And I'm telling you, almost every single time I go off script, to go off my notes, or even if it's in my notes and I just do a continuation of what was in my notes, every single time I get reports back of you. You literally answered some questions that I was just praying about this morning and y'all, it's not me, it is the spirit speaking through me and God desires for his people to be active in his gifts so that he can speak through us.

Speaker 1: 26:21

Salvation, these gifts of the spirit, is not a salvation issue. Okay, coming to know Christ, you are saved, you're got fire insurance, you're going to heaven. Okay, that's what I call it. It's kind of funny, but I never. I never want anybody to get saved by obligation. Okay, cause then you're not really. You're not going to repent and turn from your ways, which is what salvation is. It is turning away from your sin and no longer living in that lifestyle. It's not just adding Jesus to your utility belt, okay, it's laying everything in his feet, walking away from who you were, sometimes, who you are been around relationships, things like that so that we can be led by the spirit, cause God desires for that. That's why he gives these gifts so that we can be active and unify the body and edify the body and bring encouragement, correction and direction to the body.

Speaker 1: 27:16

We every I tell my people this all the time every gift, even speaking in tongues, is a personal edification. When you're doing it in private, but speaking out in tongues and then an interpretation is given in a setting in the congregation, it edifies the body, it brings our focus. That's what every gift is. It should bring our focus back to God. What does God say? What does God want? What does God desire for us to do? That is the thing for every single believer is to bring focus back to God and not be like at the church of Corinth and try to bring our focus to us, but back to God.

Speaker 1: 27:49

So now, these are the gifts Christ gave us to the church the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and the teachers. So, prophets, prophesying is speaking. God's truth, god's truth. Okay, and listen to me, if you ever become active in this gift, okay, don't speak any more than what God gives you and don't speak any less. Only speak what God wants you to speak and then just shut up. Some of us, that's harder than others. Let's go on so teaching. Romans, chapter 12, verse seven If your gift is serving, serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. That means don't just come teaching the word of God and throw a sermon or a sermon it's coming from my perspective Throw a lesson the last five minutes and expect God to bless it. God desires for us to be good stewards of his word. What does that mean? That means we must do some studying, we must do some digging, we must get a little theological so that we can actually pass that knowledge onto other people. We want to raise up other Christians.

Speaker 1: 28:54

As a teacher, I love teaching. I have another YouTube channel that I've kind of slacked off on just because I've been doing this and life is. We just had a new baby, so life's been pretty hectic. I teach photography on that channel. I love teaching, I love the process, I love getting feedback and helping people out. Questions pop up and I love it. I enjoy that so much. But I can't teach if I am first of all not teachable. If nobody can ever teach me anything, I can never gain wisdom and further my skill at teaching.

Speaker 1: 29:25

I just had a pastor's breakfast this morning with pastors in our district. There is four of us there all together and every single one of them is 60 years old or older. Now some of you may think why would you want to go be with a bunch of old dudes? Because I am just wise enough to know that I'm not wise or smart enough to do the job that they've been doing their entire lives. So I need wisdom, I need to be taught, something I had just across the table from breakfast this morning. I had a deep conversation about somebody just giving me some wisdom on how to deal with some church stuff and it was, and I just sit there and let him talk because I don't have it all figured out. And the people who realized that maybe I don't have all the answers, maybe I don't have it all figured out, but maybe I can learn something, usually can be very gifted in teaching because they're willing to be taught, just like leaders need to understand and learn how to serve before they can be effective leaders. And that should be our goal of mission to actually be effective when we do something.

Speaker 1: 30:25

Just a personal man's opinion right here. So let's see teaching. Okay, so teachers explain and apply scriptures fostering growth in faith. All right, let's go to the next one, serving. So Romans, chapter 12 or seven if you get to serving, serve them well Sometimes. Now, this is a tricky gift because sometimes we can serve so good that we caught up in it and we forget to be served. If your gift is serving this actually I just realized this applies to a lot of these gifts If your gift is teaching, sometimes it's hard to be taught because you've been studying so much and you know a lot, sometimes the gift of serving.

Speaker 1: 31:11

You're so adamant about serving others, you'll be stubborn and not allow anybody else to serve you. And so what this does, you know, is it depletes your tank. It depletes and you don't, you're not allowing yourself to be filled back up so that you can continue to pour out and eventually, eventually, you will become bitter, you'll become cynical, you will not have anything good to say about anybody, because I've been doing this for a long time man, church, people, you know and you, all of a sudden, you've got a negative attitude about anybody and everybody and you call yourself a servant. It's just what we do. It's easy to do this. It's hard to let other people serve you when you want to just be a servant. But a part of being a servant is knowing how to serve and knowing when to let someone else serve you.

Speaker 1: 32:03

I have had this biggest issue. I guess sometimes it can get old and I can get cranky, especially if I feel like I'm doing all the work, like any of us. But my heart is to serve others and I've had people at my church since we've taken the church actually, this month is two years almost exactly. And I've had staff at my church say, listen, we got this, go talk to the people over there, like, supposed to do? You're the pastor, we got this grunt work over here. And I'm like no, I can't stand if I hear somebody else working and I'm not doing it. And you know what they said to me If you're over there counseling with someone getting involved in their life, you are doing your job, let us do ours. And then I put my head down and I said shut up, cause I knew they were right. It's just the way it is.

Speaker 1: 32:54

It's hard to let other people serve us and sometimes we have the definition of what is serving and not realizing that what we're doing is a greater capacity of serving. That's a good one. So exhortation, exhortation. So got my notes mixed up somehow. That's all right. This is kind of self-explanatory. So Romans, chapter 12, verse eight if your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. So one of the in our denomination, one of the first, I guess tears and steps of becoming a minister ordained and stuff like that is it's actually exhortation like, or exhorter, it's what they call it. So that's pretty cool. I'm gonna blow this up just a tag, cause I don't like the way it looks, oh, I won't move. There we go so exhorting, lifting other people up above yourself, and I think honestly it's a very good title for an entry level. It sounded like it's an organization, but it is an entry level position where you can actually learn to lift other people up above yourself. I think sometimes people that have been in ministry for a while need to go back and redo their first fruits so that they can find humility again. Amen, come on somebody. All right, giving Now, this one, right here.

Speaker 1: 34:19

If you are not a giver, that's okay. God still loves you. But I want you to listen to me. Everybody is called to give. Okay, you may not have the spiritual gift of giving. Now, if you're like me, I don't know if I call it a spiritual gift, but I like to give, and I do it a lot out of faith, because I don't have a lot of money. So you may desire the gift, but just use caution, because if you ain't got the funds in the bank, don't write a hot check to a church or an organization. All I'm saying is use wisdom. But giving is good. Okay, if you have money, share it generously.

Speaker 1: 35:00

I tell this is my policy a church and with ties or whatever. I tell them almost every Sunday. If you think that our church is after your money, give it for three months somewhere else and one of my board members said he didn't like that too much. They want to put down stakes here. I ain't worried about your money, I don't care.

Speaker 1: 35:17

I don't even know who pay ties in my church. I have no clue. If they're on staff, I know because that's our rules. You have to follow the Bible to be on staff. But if you volunteer, if you come to church there, I don't know if you pay ties. I don't know how much anybody pays ties, even the staff members. I have no clue what amount they pay in ties. And I do that on purpose because I don't want anybody to ever think that this pastor is after their money, or listening to them because they pay more, or not listening to them because they pay less.

Speaker 1: 35:46

I have no clue what anybody pays at my church, but my policy is if you think after your money, follow God's design and pay ties somewhere else to a local church it could be wherever, I don't care Give it online to some ministry that's actually doing the work of the Lord and not building the kingdom. Be careful of that. But I tell them I don't need your tithe money. Now why do I not need the tithe money? Because, as a pastor, I own a business that takes care of us and so I don't pursue money or make decisions at our church based on whether someone paid me more money or not. I don't care, doesn't bother me at all. I'm not manipulated by someone who has money and I'm not playing that game. I don't do it. I'm not gonna do it ever. God has set my life up to where, if everything was to go away today, we'd be okay, and that's the faith I have.

Speaker 1: 36:43

So I don't let anybody come in my church and try to manipulate and say, well, I gave this much money and that much money. How come you're not listening to me? Cause I don't know, bro, it'd be manipulated if I don't know the details. Devil, the money is not evil, but the love of money is Okay. So listen to me Now. If you're a millionaire and you're out there and you wanna look, there's a link in the description of my church. If you wanna give, we're running out of room in the building. Come on and give. We'll take your money any day of the week. We'll even take the devil's money. That's fine, we'll bless it. God will put it to work. I don't care where it comes from, god will provide. Hey man, come on somebody. All right back to our text.

Speaker 1: 37:19

So if you have the gift of giving, do it with a good heart. I tell my people all the time I say listen, I don't want you to pay your tithes or I don't want you to give money to anything we ever put in front of you, unless God tells you and puts it in your heart to do it. Why? Because I don't want you to give out of bitterness or feel like obligation or you think some man told you to so you've gotta give. I want God to tell you to do something and I want you to listen to him. I don't want you to listen to me. I know cause. I have put God to the test.

Speaker 1: 37:50

When I had nothing and when I had a lot, I paid my tithes all the time. I had a situation when my wife and I first got married and I made a transition in work and my pay within six months got cut in half. Then what happened? We never missed a bill and we kept paying tithes, and it also catapulted me into pursuing more of my company and actually forming it into what it is today, and God's been blessing and pouring out in ways that I don't even understand Matter of fact in such a way. And this is just how God works.

Speaker 1: 38:22

When you fully give your finances over to God, I'm not saying you're gonna be rich, but what I'm saying is when you are faithful and you show God that you trust him with your finances and, if we're honest, sometimes it's very difficult to do, especially if you don't see it. But faith is not about what you see. It's hope for the things that you don't see and that you believe will happen. And you may not be rich, but God doesn't say that you'll be rich and wealthy. He says that he will provide your needs. There's a big difference and I think we get a little sideways with God sometimes in our Western culture that we have a certain expectation of God that he doesn't actually promise. Let's go on. Let's go on with somebody. All right, there's giving again. Oh, come on, man. So giving aid, this is like more giving of your time, okay and helps. So this would be like volunteers at church, like I told my people all the time. I actually haven't said this to them in a while. I think I may throw it in there Sunday.

Speaker 1: 39:18

But God did not desire or design us to be a church of consumption, but contribution, okay. He wants us to give of our time, give of our efforts and, yes, even give of our money. He wants us to help each other so that we can be a healthy body. Every part of the body, big or small, has parts like. This right here cannot do what my knee can, and this right here can't do what my ear can, but it's very important if I want to hitchhike somewhere or if I want to drink fancy with a cup of tea, very important. So, just because you're a part of the body and you may feel like you're insignificant or your part, doesn't matter. It takes everybody that comes to participate, contribute to make a healthy body, to where we can function and do the work of the kingdom that we're called to do. God has not called the church to worship a man on a stage or a woman on a stage to build the kingdom of man. He desires for us to build the kingdom of the Lord. Okay, so that is being done by people volunteering, stepping up, wanting to do the work and sometimes it's the work that nobody else wants to do.

Speaker 1: 40:29

I got this guy at my church and bless his heart, this dude. The last three leadership meetings I've had I have told him through texts. I know he gets my messages because he's responded, but way later. So what this guy does is I have a leadership meeting. So every person over a department nursery, sound media, all the stuff, social media we have a lady that does our social media. If they do anything, and the board members, if they do anything that in their over department they have a department, there was people under them or they're in control of what happens they're invited to leadership meeting. So the leadership meeting happens, everybody gets there and I'm like this guy didn't come again.

Speaker 1: 41:08

It was like the second or third time that he just did not show up and I'm like am I the guy? He speaks Spanish, okay, he speaks broken English. So I'm like maybe I'm not landing, maybe I'm not, the communication's not getting across like I thought it was. So a few weeks ago I got with him and I said hey man, how come you haven't been coming to my leadership meetings? Do you text? Have you been getting my texts? Yes, sir, so why haven't you been coming to my leadership meetings? You know what he told me and this broke my heart. But these are the kind of people that I want to be volunteers and leaders and things.

Speaker 1: 41:44

At my church and on staff. He said all I do is empty the trash and vacuum and clean the toilets. He's the custodial guy at our church. I'm like dude, you are a leader. That is not in my eyes. That is not a small job to me. He's not beneath me because he scrubs the toilets and he vacuums and he cleans and he empties the trash. Like to me, that is an honorable position that he is taking to serve the body, but nine times out of 10, nobody else will want to do it. He volunteered it and even so further, he will not take pay to do it. He says this is my way of giving back to God and he'll go through there. And he said I came through one time and he had like this lawn looking chair sitting out in the foyer area and he's looking out the front glass doors and he's just like I just turned some worship music on and just sit here in the presence of the Lord. And I'm like dude, if we could have hearts like that to serve the community of God. Imagine the effectiveness of the church that we could truly have in our cities. And I told him. I said, man, next time be at the meeting. He said, yes, sir, but he's such a humble guy, he doesn't want any recognition. Every time I say thank you for all you do, he says bless the Lord. He's always trying to push things to the Lord. This guy is the epitome, he is the definition of this giving in AIDS.

Speaker 1: 43:09

First, corinthians, 12, 28. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church. First, the Apostles. Second or prophets. Third or teachers. Then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others. I think it's no accident grouping of these things right here to help people that they give of their time, they volunteer, they are willing to do what needs to be done for the furthering of the gospel of Jesus Christ and they step up and they don't just come and consume, they actually want to contribute to the cause they want to contribute to. The kingdom Is grouped in with apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles and healings. That's pretty awesome.

Speaker 1: 43:53

So don't tell me that you can't do anything in your local church. Don't tell me that you don't have a place. Don't tell me that you can't do anything, that you're just insignificant in your local body of believers. You have a place. Compassion, romans, chapter 12, verse eight. Man, we could use more of this.

Speaker 1: 44:14

If God has given you the leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously and if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. How many of you know, sometimes showing kindness is also very, very burdensome, like people just especially today. It's worse, and I'm telling you the end is coming, y'all, cause Jesus is going to split those clouds very soon. We are seeing right before our very eyes evil being said as good and good being said is evil and it's going to. It has to be that way, as revelation tells us that this is when. This is when this is when you will hear the trumpet sound. But I'm just 12, eight.

Speaker 1: 45:04

God has given you leadership ability. Take the responsibility serious, and if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly. Do it with a cheerful heart, the same with giving. Give with a cheerful heart. Show mercy to those that do not deserve it, for that is how those who do not know God will come to an understanding of who he is. We have a great responsibility. A great responsibility to show mercy and grace and compassion to those who don't deserve it. Because I guarantee you at points different points in your life, I know points in my life I do not deserve grace and mercy, I do not deserve compassion. But if Jesus would wash the feet of the very man that was going to lead him to a place of crucifixion, if he would do that to Judas, what excuse do you have to not show compassion to somebody? It kind of changes the perspective when you realize all the things that Jesus went through, all the deception, all the backstabbing, all the evil that he endured for us. And we want to complain about other people. We have a great responsibility Healing, of course, we all like this one.

Speaker 1: 46:19

In my church we get loud, we clap, we scream. Well, we don't scream when we're not crazy. We do not handle snakes. Ain't no snakes in my church. Oh, I will not be there. That is one thing that I don't. I'm not gonna say that I don't care what the Lord says. There ain't gonna be no snakes in my church and there ain't gonna be no poison drinking either. Some of y'all don't know what I'm talking about, but some of y'all are like, yeah, I heard of them, crazy people, that ain't us, that is not us. We were out of Cleveland, tennessee, not those other weirdos.

Speaker 1: 46:45

All right, healing First Corinthians, chapter 12, verse nine. The same spirit here we go again. The sun spirit. Multiple gifts the same spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else. The one spirit gives the gift of healing, which is pretty cool. Working miracles here we go again. Miracles First Corinthians, 12, 10. He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and then it continues on with what we read earlier. Then you have tongues First Corinthians, 12, 10. Again, still another person has given the ability to speak in unknown languages.

Speaker 1: 47:21

Now there's several examples in the Bible of different types of tongues. For instance, you have actually we're on a live stream. Let me look at my notes from my sermon Just this past. Oh, my goodness, y'all ever have a moment where you look at your desktop or your computer and it's completely covered with little folders and you're like I got a problem. That's how I am right now. I can't even see this. John, hold on, let me get closer and look where you're at. So, my goodness, there's so many. Oh, that's part two. Oh, there we go, the gift of tongues. My goodness, it popped all the way up there. All right, so, all right.

Speaker 1: 48:06

So if you don't write these down, some of what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit John chapter 14, there's a lot about John chapter 15 and then John chapter 16. Read those chapters, study those chapters. So some of the things that the Holy Spirit is called is helper, teacher, advocate and guiding us, teaching us, empowering believers in the truth of Jesus' message. So let's see Acts chapter two, one through 12. So we got a lot.

Speaker 1: 48:41

So speaking in tongues, let's see Sorry, I'm going through my notes here. This will be cut out on the video that I put up. So in Acts chapter two, verses one through 12, it kind of this is where the initial outpouring hits, and so in this instance, in Acts chapter two, you have the disciples and beyond the disciples. This is where it gets muddy, when people are like, oh, I died out with the disciples and the apostles, but yet there were 120 up there and there was not that many disciples. You have the sound of a mighty rushing wind hits the place and you have everything.

Speaker 1: 49:18

Coming to a new era where speaking in tongues is a evangelistic gift, where they walk out of the room, there's people gather around. They heard a noise. Some thought that they were just drunk, but some were like well, it's only like nine o'clock in the morning, bro, I don't think they've been drinking like that. Yet some heard in their own native tongue of the good news of Jesus Christ. Well then you have Paul that writes later that says I speak in tongues more than all of you in private. So he's talking about a private language.

Speaker 1: 49:57

Then you have where Paul writes after that in this, either same verse or same chapter. I know it's in the same chapter where he says I speak in tongues more than all of you, but I think it's first Corinthians, chapter 14. He says I speak in tongues more than all of you, but in a public setting. I would rather speak five words of encouragement or prophecy or whatever of understanding where people everybody understands, than 5,000 words in another language. So he's saying that tongues has a place in a public setting, to where and this is there's different examples of how tongues was used throughout scripture.

Speaker 1: 50:37

So on the day of Pentecost, acts, chapter two, you have it. Where they didn't some of them didn't understand what was going on, peter had to explain no, they're not drunk. This is actually what Jesus promised us. This is the power of the Holy spirit. And in that very same passage he goes and explains everything that just happened. Some didn't understand it, some did so. There was actually no interpretation. There was a or no translation, but I guess, of what was going on. Peter was explaining what happened.

Speaker 1: 51:07

Then you have later, when Paul is writing the church of Corinth, he's saying that in public settings, if you're doing it out loud, he says he does it in private. So he obviously prays in tongues by himself, but in a public setting, in the church, there needs to be an interpretation. Now that doesn't mean that at church you can't pray in tongues. What Paul was saying here, and the example that he gives, is that there needs to be understanding in the spirit. There needs to be understanding and explanation of what is going on. So at my church, if someone gives a gift of tongues and they pray out loud, you can tell there's a massive difference than somebody praying to themselves okay, and someone speaking out in tongues, and what that does is now people get quiet. We are as people and this is why I wanted to go through all this speaking in tongues in two weeks because I wanted people to understand that when this happens, after it follows should follow an interpretation, and so I want people to understand that you can pray privately in tongues, but it also requires an interpretation. When it is out loud, as if someone was giving a prophetic word, as if someone was speaking with the microphone, there is a difference than someone talking quietly in a corner, or if I come up and have a microphone or I'm yelling out trying to get everybody's attention. There's a massive difference.

Speaker 1: 52:25

So speaking in tongues is a biblical concept that is available for everyone. There was no dividing. When Jesus said in Acts 1-8 that you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, he was saying that everybody could receive this gift and it actually was the evidence of power. I don't know why God did it that way. I don't know. I honestly there's no biblical text to say this is why God chose to do it this way, except for we have passages that explains that the tongue is usually one of the last things that we give over to God. Think about that. So maybe that's why he's doing it, because that's usually that's our last straw, last line of defense against God not wanting to give him everything that we are is usually the tongue. So still, another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages perpetation of tongue so he follows it up, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. So a gift of tongues goes out, or a message in tongues goes out and someone will have the understanding. There's a woman in our church, actually two women in our church. One usually will give the message in tongues, the other one will usually interpret it.

Speaker 1: 53:44

So it's wise for us to know, and this is why in my church we have what's called a growth track, and the first part of it is our core beliefs and our core values. The second part of it is walking through spiritual gifts. So where are you spiritually active? Or you know? It's good to know ourselves spiritually. You don't need to just walk through our Christian life willy-nilly not understanding anything about the word of God, what's available to us and how God desires to be active in the body, active in the church. It's important for us to have understanding.

Speaker 1: 54:17

This is why I felt important to maybe you as a listener or a watcher, if you're watching on YouTube or Facebook that you need to have understanding of what the word says and somebody tries to tell you that this is not of God. There are scriptures. Show me a scripture that says this stuff has stopped. Show me a scripture that says this is not of God. Just because it's weird or we don't understand it, that should push you more into the way of yeah, that probably is God, because we have just a tip of the iceberg of who God is and an understanding of who he is. So let's go on Wisdom. So 1 Corinthians 12, 8,. To one person, the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice. Now, this is, and I said earlier, also too.

Speaker 1: 55:04

Before we go any further, if you would be so kind is to go like and subscribe on YouTube. Hit that bell notification so you can see every time I go live or I post a new video. That is free for you to go. Do that, that would be awesome. Just a few stats. I don't know what God is doing, but he's doing something pretty awesome. A few or three days ago, I think, I posted it on. You can go follow our Instagram or Facebook page Faith and Failures.

Speaker 1: 55:33

But in any place you listen to podcasts, episodes, every episode is put out, but on podcasts on the actual podcast platforms those are usually later and mixed up. So if you want like in order, we do series and things like that playlist on different years. You can see what I first started off in 2019, 2018, whatever it was. I have playlist on YouTube. So my YouTube channel is the perfect place, if you're new to Faith and Failures, to go like and subscribe and make sure that you just become a part of the community as well, as I think we have 750 private group members over on Facebook, so join that. A lot of the and you can email Faith and Failures at Gmail.

Speaker 1: 56:17

A lot of the episodes on current events. When we watch current events what's going on in our world, what's going on in our nation and then we apply the Bible to it. Like that's kind of the heartbeat of this podcast. So we passed over 425,000 views this past month, so that's an awesome thing. I don't know why, but for some reason, people are tuning in and praise God for that. So you can hit the PayPal link below to give it one time. You can give little stars on Facebook to have a little tab or a little button. You click stars, so just another way to help out the channel and further the gospel.

Speaker 1: 56:53

So now wisdom is something that I don't know why, but when I was younger I would really pray to God. This is before I was in any kind of leadership, before I even really did anything. But it was always my harsh desire for God's wisdom, not man's wisdom, god's wisdom Like to see things. Thank you so much for that. To see things that are beyond, like my natural eye, that the spirit of God would lead me in a way that I would be wise about things.

Speaker 1: 57:21

It reminds me of Solomon, some of the stories that are from him. That was like the two women, the two prostitutes. Both of them had children, and one of them, in the middle of the night, rolled over and killed their baby. And so what that woman did was go and steal another woman's baby, put it beside her and when they woke up she pretended like it was hers. Well, the mother of the child knew all of a sudden her baby's gone, and it was kind of a no-brainer. A mother will know what their baby looks like. And so they bring it before Solomon, and Solomon says, listen, how about this? I'll take a sword, I'll cut the baby in half and I'll give half to you and half to her. Well, he's about to cut the baby and all of a sudden the real mother breaks down and says no, no, no, I would rather the baby live than you kill the child. And then immediately Solomon knew that that was the actual mother. I kind of whizzed him oh, that's a different time period, but I wouldn't think to cut a baby in half and just to force the mother to come out and say no, no, no, and then you would know who the real mother was.

Speaker 1: 58:24

So I've been praying for wisdom, not knowing I've never pursued a pastoral position, I've never pursued a youth pastor position, I've never pursued a worship leader position ever. But God has just throughout my life, raised me up in those positions. And so I've been praying for godly wisdom and I did not realize that in my mid 30s God was going to lead me to be a pastor over a bunch of older people than me that have lived longer, that have more wisdom than me, that have been around and seen more things. But I'm able to counsel people that are leaning from things. I have to say, and I'm telling you, it's not me, I'm just a dumb country kid that used to be on drugs, that used to sleep, I was an alcoholic. Like there's no reason why I should have any brain cells. I forget a lot of things sometimes. That may be why I'm smoking all that myth.

Speaker 1: 59:18

But God has blessed me with a godly wisdom, a spiritual wisdom that is not of me, but I can speak into people's lives that should know more than me, that should have more wisdom than me, but for some reason it just flows out of me and I praise God for it. Because it's not me, it is not Steven Tillman, it is 100% God. And now I see why God placed that desire in my heart to pray in such a way that wisdom would flow out of me from the spirit, because it's not me, but he knew that I was gonna need it later. So 1 Corinthians 12, 8 to one person, the spirit gives the ability to give wise advice, knowledge. So 1 Corinthians 12, 8 to another, the same spirit gives a message of special knowledge. And this, just like in other gifts of the spirit, this overlaps with, like the gift of prophecy, because you will be able to speak something over someone's life and have a word of knowledge or a gift of knowledge beyond what you actually should know about them, and you will be able to speak into their life, from a word that God has given you so to another. The same spirit gives a message of special knowledge. Now, faith. This is one that I am big in. I have a gift of faith. So I told you we have a growth track that is like our core values, our core beliefs.

Speaker 1: 1:00:39

And then we have this little booklet with like 200 questions and it kind of walks you. It's like one of those, one of those what do you call it? Personality test or whatever it is. You're A, b, c or whatever it is. It's kind of like that, but kind of it gives the spirits, gives the spirit and what that does. It's not set in stone, but it's something kind of cool as a group setting to just talk about gifts of the spirit.

Speaker 1: 1:01:02

Let people see, like hold up a spiritual mirror to themselves a little bit, to where they can actually think in the spirit and not just fleshly stuff, but think like what does my reflection look like in the spirit? And so we let them do fill out these little booklet things. And then we go around and we say our top three and our worst three, like are we not gifted? But then also too, so this is how the spiritual gifts work is that one person has every spiritual gift. Okay, there's not one person that has every gift, but every believer does have one gift, at least one gift.

Speaker 1: 1:01:41

And so faith the reason I brought that up faith is one of my top spiritual gifts. Like I pray and I'm like imagining in my head, like I'm praying for healing. People come down at church and they wanna be prayed for they have a sickness in their body or they need the healing in relationships or whatever the case may be. I believe when the Bible says healing, it means spiritual, physical, emotional, mental. I believe God wants to heal all of these things in people's lives. And so when I pray I like imagine in my head, I'm just going nuts in my head with like this would be so cool if right now, all of a sudden, they'd spit the cancer up, or you know, and I just I place my hands and believe that the healing of God is gonna flow through these hands.

Speaker 1: 1:02:25

You see how the gift of faith now overlaps with the gift of healing. It may overlap with the gift of prophecy. It may overlap with the gift of miracle signs and wonders. You know, there's all kinds of overlap because it's one spirit that gives multiple gifts and I tell people in my growth track I say listen, you may have been born with a desire and a gift in you from the spirit From day one. Like parents can look back at their kids and be like, oh, that makes a whole lot of sense because he did this this and this this throughout his entire life. But I also believe that in a singular moment, a gift that you may not have been born with or desire that you don't have, could be, in that very moment in time, bestowed upon you in that moment to be active in a gift that was necessary for that appointed time. So it's not that you are walking around with this gift at all times. For instance, james tells us in his book lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So, that being said, doesn't that mean that everybody who's laying hands and believing now they're activating the gift of faith, now they're activating the gift of healing. So you see, it can come and go, you can believe together and the gifts can become activated. God can do a miraculous thing through the faithfulness and the faith of the people, but that doesn't mean that every person that laid their hands on there has the gift of healing.

Speaker 1: 1:03:47

There's people throughout history that are known for. I watch these guys. I highly recommend them. Remnant radio. There's one of them that when he speaks in tongues the gift that he has he's been around people who fluently speak Portuguese and he does not know Portuguese and several times he's been told by those people that they understood him, exactly what he was saying, and he doesn't know that language. He's actually a Jewish guy. And so another one there's three of them on this radio show or the podcast and the other guy. I think he is used and it's weird because it's a very specific gift of healing. It's foot stuff, foot issues he ends up archers being restored, the just weird foot stuff that they need healing in, and for some reason, god has given him that gift of healing that most of the healings that happen around him has something to do with feet.

Speaker 1: 1:04:43

I don't know if I would want that, but I guess, hey, if God's gonna use it, why not? So, but to do something like that and to pray for that. A lot of times the gift of prophecy will be present and they'll begin to ask questions to people that are out there, Like you have the, and it'll be very specific. The gift of prophecy should be specific, okay, where you can, hey, like Paul tells us to do, to weigh the gift of prophecy, to weigh the prophecy according to scripture. And is it what God says or is it someone misstepping and mis-speaking? So overlap gift of faith, overlap the gift of miracles.

Speaker 1: 1:05:18

You know, all these things overlap because it's one spirit giving multiple gifts. It's one spirit. Even in the Old Testament it says the spirit of God moved upon him and he did a miracle. Or God would speak and say do this and a miracle would happen. So faith, 1 Corinthians 12, 9,. The same spirit gives great faith to another, great faith, and I think that's what kind of separates the gift of faith and having faith. Some people they'll have faith in something, but some people you can tell the gift of faith. I have the gift of faith.

Speaker 1: 1:05:51

And here's my thing when you pray for somebody for healing, you pray for somebody for something, something to happen, and you believe it. After you believe it, you need to leave it. And what do I mean by that? That you can have faith that something will happen, but also recognize and understand that it's not your call whether it does or when it does. It's God's call. God is the ultimate, god is the healer, god is the chain breaking. God of the universe that can decide when somebody is healed, when families are restored.

Speaker 1: 1:06:26

But a lot of times in that space, deliverance needs to take place. People hold on to things and don't tell anybody. And I have heard story after story after story that healing begin to take place, demons being cast out when you begin to ask questions of what is it that you're holding onto or what is it that is ailing you and what is it that you have not completely given over to God. And this is when people begin to speak in tongues. This is when people repent and turn from their wicked ways. This is when people actually begin to experience freedom in their life, when they want to fully, 100% everything that we are. God does not want 99.999% of you, god wants 100% of you. And the Bible says faith without works is dead and you may God happy without faith. So faith is very important. It's a crucial part of the Christian walk, the Christian faith.

Speaker 1: 1:07:20

So discernment. So this one discernment would be. Well, let's read it and this will explain it. So, 1 Corinthians 12, 10,. It says he, the spirit, a spirit of God, a Holy Spirit, gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the spirit. So pay attention to the wording when you read scripture. Pay attention to the phrasing and the wording and the passages before and after you read. Something is from the spirit or a spirit of God, excuse me or from another spirit. So I tell my people this all the time just because something is good does not mean it's good for you, even the.

Speaker 1: 1:08:01

I guess you'd call her a witch. I think that's what she was. I know she was even possessed. It was following, I think, paul and Silas, as they were preaching, and she was saying that they yes, these are men of God, they are preaching the truth. And I believe it was Paul that he got so mad that he turned around because it was more distracting. He knew, he discerned that there was something beyond what looked, what it looked like, and he cast a spirit out. Well then they have him flogged because the guy who was her master got angry because she was the spirit of divination. She would talk to spirits, she would tell people's fortunes and all that stuff. We have that today, don't we? Yeah, that's real too.

Speaker 1: 1:08:47

Administration so this is another gift of mine and also administration and shepherding go. Usually we'll go hand in hand. If you can shepherd people, you also have to be a good administrator. Now this for me these administration and shepherding has been a gift that has been fine tuned within the last three years for me. Now, in the last seven to eight years I've been on this path, but in the last three years I've seriously learned some hard but good lessons in ministry and learned how to be an administrator and understand that the role of pastor is not just coming and preaching a sermon, that you have to run an organization beyond just coming and delivering a message. It's more than that.

Speaker 1: 1:09:40

I hope, whoever your pastor is, you don't platform him and put him on a pedestal, but understand that he's not just coming and standing behind a pulpit and giving you a word, that there's more to being a pastor than just saying some words. You think about the burden of carrying everybody else's burdens, endless counseling hours. If you probably have a younger pastor, he probably does a lot of social media stuff that you never know about. Like my church, I edit all the photos. I try to work back and forth with the reels and stuff that we put online to get everything working. I edit down the videos for just smaller consumption and do where it's just the message, to get the title of the sermon for that Sunday and then all the other stuff we do in between, and then have to be a father and a husband and then run a company and then do a podcast because y'all won't leave me alone.

Speaker 1: 1:10:32

I'm just kidding, but there's a lot of things that go on in someone's life that a lot of people think that just because a man brings a word, that's all he does and then everything else he's just gravy. Why are we even paying him Now? Granted, that could be the condition of your pastor at your church. I don't know your position or where you go, but what I'm saying is show a little grace and mercy to those that do bring the word, because it's a heavy burden and a lot of study time and in the middle of that of shepherding they have to do administration, and the administration part, like shepherding, is tough too. They really overlap. But like preaching, I guess teaching would be more of that, where you come in and you bring the word and then shepherding and administration overlap, because sometimes you have to have some very hard conversations and maybe some people enjoy that. But I don't like hard conversations. I don't mind having them when they have to be had, but it's very.

Speaker 1: 1:11:31

You have to seriously struggle because you don't want to hurt. If you love the people and if you're the pastor you should If you love the people and you have compassion for them, you have to correct some things sometimes, even though you love them, and you have to do it in such a way that you actually are still showing and displaying that you love them. But to not allow for sin to creep in the camp, to not allow for sinful nature to creep in the camp. You have to sometimes shut things down and it's not pleasant, it's not a fun job sometimes, probably, getting up and preaching the word is probably the easiest part of the whole job and it is a position, it's a job, it is work, it's working in the field, it is toiling the ground, it is spreading the seed. All these things you have to do in administration. Sometimes it's at the heart of that and sometimes it's not fun because you have to make some serious, hard decisions.

Speaker 1: 1:12:20

So first, corinthians, chapter 12, 28,. We'll wrap it up. Here are some of the parts God has appointed for the church. First, the apostles. Remember we read this earlier First the apostles, second, the prophets, third, our teachers. And then those who do miracles, those who have the gift of healing, those who can help others, those who have the gift of leadership. So these are what the scripture calls the gifts of the spirit. And so to end it on, to remind you of what I've been saying this entire time, is that the gifts of the spirit are from one source, from the Holy Spirit, and so from that source we have multiple gifts that are unique in each of their functions but are also overlapping and blend together and bring unity to the body. They edify the body, they bring encouragement, they bring correction and they bring direction. There is no part of the body, there's no spiritual gift that is better than another.

Speaker 1: 1:13:33

Paul does write that the importance of edifying the body, that prophecy does more good than tongues does. Because apparently, when Paul was writing the church of Corinth, there were some that were trying to make themselves feel better because they spoke in tongues, while other people just prophesied. So what he did was he corrected that and he said actually he was being an administrator. Actually, if we're really getting down to brass, tax prophecy does more for the body than speaking in tongues does. But Paul says I speak in tongues more than all of you, but in a public setting we should. And Paul also writes. I don't remember what verse it is, but he also writes and says let love be your motivation, let it be the fuel in your tank to performing and doing all the gifts.

Speaker 1: 1:14:29

For instance, I was talking to my wife the other day. We had some demonic activity happen in our church and one of the back rooms. And I was talking to one of the board members as well and I said you know, one thing we have to be careful of and this is just this is church people. Okay, y'all hear me on this. We have to make sure that we're not so focused on or we got a demon out. We're focused on the demon instead of the deliverance of the person.

Speaker 1: 1:14:56

And if we're motivated by love, if we're motivated by the spirit, if we're being led by the spirit and we're being remade in the image of Jesus, he did everything he did and told him. He did healings, he cast out demons and he would tell them repent and turn from your ways and don't do it anymore. Now you can live a life for God, now that you've had this ailment out of your way and now you can sing his praises A lot of times. People that he said repent to you. Don't tell people that don't need to repent. To repent so they had to be sinners, that'd be full of themselves, that'd be selfish. They had to be self-righteous. I think that's maybe why we didn't see any Pharisees getting healed, because they were so self-righteous. Jesus couldn't have done anything for them because they didn't want to repent.

Speaker 1: 1:15:38

I think healing and repentance and deliverance oftentimes go hand in hand and it's very important that we understand that, that when we want to beat people up for their sinful nature, remember we've all been people that needed to repent and most of us. If you're like me, I got to repent every day, not that I'm out doing a lifestyle of sin, but my being, my flesh, is still there and I have to, on purpose, intentionally, every single day, kill my flesh so that the spirit can take the rightful place in my life and that I can hear the spirit speak to me and allow the spirit to speak through me in every season and every situation and not allow my flesh to take the reins again. So I hope that brings a little bit of clarity. Make sure that you subscribe, that you like the channel. Make sure you go to the YouTube space and give me a little thumbs up, hit that bell notification so that you can get notified every time I put out a new video and every time I go live. If you hit that little bell on the profile and say all anytime I put anything out whether it's live stream videos, reels, whatever the case may be and then check the description below for any links to support the channel, greatly appreciated. Make sure you share this video with somebody that may have some questions about spiritual gifts or some doubts.

Speaker 1: 1:17:08

This channel is a channel of understanding. We need to understand what's going on in our culture and know what the Bible says about it, and we need to have some biblical understanding too. So I hope this helps. If it has helped you in any way, I hope I've earned your subscription over on YouTube. Once again, thank you so much. God bless you and I hope you have an amazing week. Faith and Failures podcast.