Skip to content Guest Speakers: The Miraculous Gifts Sep 3 · 47 min ...more
Guest Speakers: The Miraculous Gifts
September 3, 2023 · 47 min
Speaker: Jon Gaus
Series BRAVE Church September 3, 2023 · 47 min · BRAVE Church
Speaker: Jon Gaus ...more Show the full description Show less Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Holy Spirit of God, we worship you. We praise you. We recognize that you are the author of scripture and 1 of the names the Lord Jesus gave you is the0:12 teacher. So we're asking you to be the perfect teacher for us today. You know everything. You know everything about every person who you called to be here, that this is a divine appointment that we're all in0:24 this worship center today. Would you please feed each 1 of us supernaturally and spiritually so that we may take the next step of faith with Christ that you are0:36 calling and ordaining us to take. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Well, church, was born and raised in Flint, Michigan and there's not a lot of0:48 things to be proud about being in Michigan and Flint, but 1 of the things that we were really proud about in Flint is that Flint, Michigan is the birthplace of the Chevrolet1:00 Corvette. Yes. Back in 19 57, the first model rolled off the assembly line and then every year till 19 90 they did something really1:11 interesting. Chevrolet built a brand new model called the ZR 1. It was the most powerful Corvette that they had manufactured up to this point and they had 21:22 keys for the ignition. The first key would go in and you would get 200 horsepower. You could drive it around. It still felt like it had a lot of capacity and power and then there was a second key1:34 that you could turn in and it would double the horsepower to 400 horsepower, just double the capacity of all of the power of that engine. Now, the car dealers in Flint, they joke about the fact that1:46 they would tell guys that we're buying the Corvette. What's great about this z r 1 is when your friends and family wanna borrow your Corvette, just give them 1 key. They don't even know what this thing's1:58 capable of. They'll be happy with 200 horsepower. They don't know there's a whole half of the engine they're not even using or there's twice as much power. That reminds me a lot2:10 of Christians today. A lot of Christians today are unaware there's so much more power that we could be experiencing. There's so much of a greater capacity that the2:22 Holy Spirit could actually be using us in situations and in the lives of others and I think there's so many Christians who are only at half speed, half2:33 power because many of us have not been taught correctly about the spiritual gifts. That's what we're going to look at today. In fact, the passage that we're in in first Corinthians 12, we'll2:45 see 9 spiritual gifts listed out of the total of 21 that are in the New Testament and these 9 spiritual gifts that we're going to look at, a lot of Bible scholars consider them the2:57 miraculous gifts and you'll see why. This is 1 of the passages that's most discussed and debated among Christians and scholars, but we think that the Lord has spoken3:09 clearly. Now, before we start, we need to establish the biblical grid through which we're going to look at these 9 miraculous gifts. The first part of the grid3:21 is this, all of the spiritual gifts that were operational in the New Testament church are operational for us today. We can take advantage of all of3:32 them. There isn't 1 passage in scripture that states that any of the operational, spiritual gifts, even the miraculous ones have ceased3:44 into being. In fact, when you and I look at this, there is only 1 thing from the new testament that we can't carry into the modern church and that is the office of3:56 apostle. We'll call that apostle capital a because to be an apostle you had to have seen the risen Christ and then personally commissioned by4:08 the risen Christ. The office of apostle was like the modern day old testament prophet. They could write scripture. There were only 15 in the office of apostle in the4:20 New Testament. We had the original 12 and then of course Judas disqualified himself and Matthias took his place. Then the bible says that Paul was an apostle, that Barnabas was an apostle, and the4:32 half brother of Jesus, James, was an apostle. Well, now that the canon is closed and scripture has been completed and fully written, we have no need and there's4:44 no longer the office of apostle. Now you may have some people who call themselves apostle. Well, I'm the apostle so and so or I am the apostle of this and that. That's4:55 unbiblical. It's not of God, and it means nothing. Now, even though the office of apostle is no longer around capital a, there is5:07 a calling, an apostolic calling that some people have on their life from the Holy Spirit. We'll call this of apostolic lowercase a. It literally means in5:19 the Greek, 1 sent on a mission. So when a missionary or a church planter is sent to open up a spiritually dark place with the light of the gospel, that is an5:31 apostolic calling. Those are still happening today. In fact, the church that we're in 13 years ago, pastor Jeff and Kim who were in Peoria let me see. Flint,5:42 Peoria. Even if we weren't called, we were coming to Colorado. Do you get the idea? Okay. They were in Peoria. They received an apostolic calling from the Holy Spirit to come to a spiritually dark place, Denver, and5:54 to plant a lighthouse of the gospel, Brave Church. So that's the grid that you and I are looking through. Now if you want a deeper study on why all of the miraculous gifts are operational today,6:07 Back in 2018, pastor Jeff taught through the whole book of first Corinthians verse by verse. That's 42 messages and they're all on the website. You can get on there and watch anytime.6:20 It's a very deep, grid that he put together. Alright, Brave. The first biblical truth we need to establish for things this morning so we know that our efforts are not a waste. Number 1, look at6:32 this. All of our ministry including operating in the spiritual gifts, must be wrapped in love or it's all useless. All of our ministry,6:44 including operating in the spiritual gifts, the miraculous spiritual gifts, it doesn't matter how good we are at them. If they're not wrapped in love, they're useless. Do you6:56 remember what first Corinthians 14 1 said? Paul said, pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially prophecy. His first 2 words were pursue7:07 love and it's no coincidence that the love chapter, first Corinthians 13, is wedged right between first Corinthians 12, first Corinthians 14 that deal with spiritual gifts7:20 because this is a corrective letter to a very immature and carnal church. So when they would receive spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit, they did not use them for the common7:32 good of the church and to make Jesus look awesome. They took those spiritual gifts and they focused them on themselves and warm as a badge that I'm better than you spiritually. I am who I am. Look at me. This7:43 is who I am. So Paul writes this corrective letter. Remember the truth bomb that he dropped in them in first Corinthians 13? He said, I don't care if you have perfect theology. I don't care if you have faith that7:55 will move mountains. I don't care if you talk and speak in the tongues of men and angels. If you have not love, you're a clanging symbol. That is a great warning to you8:07 and I. That you and I and all of our ministry and operations in the spiritual gifts would always be wrapped in love or they're not of the spirit of Jesus Christ.8:19 All right. Let's take a look at this. We have first Corinthians 12. Let's start at verse 7. This is not exhaustive. It's an overview, but it8:31 can take us to the next step as a church. It can take us to the next greener pasture. That's where we want to go. The spirit through Paul said, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit8:43 for the common good. For the 1 is given, through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom, to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit,8:55 to another gifts of healings by the 1 spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to9:07 another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by the 1 and same spirit who are portions to each 19:18 individually as he will. Now over the next few minutes, we're gonna touch on all 9 of these miraculous gifts, we're really gonna camp out on 3. It's the 3 that we get the most questions about that people are really9:30 curious about. How do I operate in the gift of tongues, the gift of healing, and the gift of prophecy. Are you interested in those? I believe that because that's the questions that we always get. So what does9:42 the Bible say is the definition of a spiritual gift? The Bible doesn't really give us a clear definition. Probably the best 1 we have is right here in verse 7. We just read it. To each is9:53 given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. Paul said the same thing in first Corinthians 14 3. He said, any spiritual gifts that you get, they're not for10:05 you. They're for the comfort of the local church, the building up of the saints, and the encouragement of your fellow brothers and sisters. It's all about glory for Jesus, joy that you get to be10:17 used, and they get the gift. It's win win win. That's how it unfolds. Okay. Look at biblical truth number 2. Though we can't demand spiritual gifts,10:29 we can position ourselves to receive more. Remember the command of chapter 14 verse 1, earnestly desire spiritual gifts. We10:41 can't demand more spiritual gifts, but we can position ourselves so the spirit can give more. If this is representing a spiritual gift that the Holy Spirit has that he wants to give to10:53 somebody in this congregation to give to somebody else, here's what he's looking for. He's looking for open hands so you can grab that gift and deliver it to the person in the church who's supposed to have it.11:05 Now when you and I are harboring bitterness and unconfessed sins, that's what we're carrying around. We can't reach and we can't get that gift. That's why it's so important that our confession of sins11:17 remains current, clean and close to the Lord Jesus. Well, let's say that I have open hands but you know those miraculous gifts? I'm not really interested in dealing with those. That's for the church11:29 down the street. So this believer has empty hands, but he's indifferent so he's not reaching out. Then we have the third person who is current in their confession of sin. They believe what the bible11:40 says and they are earnestly desiring more spiritual gifts. You ever been to a Denver Nuggets game? Last time I went to a Denver Nuggets game, I was11:52 sitting in a really nice section And looking around, I I figured these people are well-to-do, most of them. They had to be to get these tickets. And they're dressed nice, and they're kinda laid back, and they're cool,12:03 and they're bane and demure until the t shirt cannon came out. And they started shooting that. And these people were like, give me 1 right here. It's a 4 dollar t shirt. It's gonna12:15 be gone after 2 washings. But they couldn't wait to get that thing and they're elbowing each other out and they're dropping everything and they're like, know what I thought? Those people are earnestly desiring t shirts.12:28 What a picture of how you and I should be earnestly desiring spiritual gifts and more spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit and he will give them. Okay. Let's start walking through these 912:39 miraculous gifts back to verse 8. The spirit through Paul says, for to 1 is given through the spirit, the utterance of wisdom to another, the utterance of knowledge according to the same12:52 spirit. These gifts are often referred to as a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge. Now, this is the only time in the New Testament they're ever mentioned. So if we're gonna get the true meaning of what they are, we13:03 have to look at the context of where they are in chapter 12. These are the supernatural miraculous gifts. So we know what Paul is talking about is you and I receiving13:15 a supernatural word of wisdom. That means that you and I could be talking to somebody after church at a first Tuesday in the lobby and this brother in Christ is just13:27 pouring out his situation. His job's going down. His marriage is not working well. It's very complicated and it's multi layered and you you almost want to quit the conversation but you know what? Jesus loves that13:39 brother and he says, I need to give that guy a supernatural word of wisdom so he gives it to you. And all of a sudden out of your mouth comes wisdom that is so good you're13:51 shocked. You're like, where did that come from? I can't believe that that just came out of my mouth. That was the supernatural gift of the word of wisdom because Jesus loves that brother and you were faithful14:02 to receive it and deliver it. Jesus gets the glory. You get the joy. He gets the gift. That's how that works. Or maybe you're in a meeting and people are trying to figure something14:14 out that's super complicated. They're all brainstorming and out of the blue without having paralysis by analysis, the spirit said, try this and you just blurred it out and the meeting stops and they turn to you like,14:25 where did that come from? That's way smarter than you are. That is the supernatural word of wisdom. Okay. The gift of the word of knowledge is14:37 when you receive knowledge about a person or situation that you would have no way of knowing if the Holy Spirit hadn't imparted that gift to you, and that knowledge is always gonna be14:49 comforting, strengthening, and encouraging to them and their situation. I had a fellow pastor that worked at 1 of our church plants with us and this college girl needed15:01 counseling and he didn't know anything that was going on in her life and she came in and she was burdened and just shamed and in chains and and all of a15:12 sudden, because Jesus loves her, he gave my fellow pastor a supernatural word of word of knowledge about this woman. And without filtering, he blurts out,15:24 Mandy, did you have an abortion during Christmas break? She just fell out in a good way. It had finally come to the surface. Now the healing light of Jesus could shine15:36 on it and he let her know Jesus forgives you. He does not want you to walk around with the lies of the enemy and in shame. He wants you to be restored. He's the gentle shepherd15:48 and Jesus gave him that and later on he told me, he goes, I don't know where that came from. I just said it because I knew it was from the Holy Spirit. That's a word of knowledge. Now,16:00 just after that, there's a buddy of mine who got saved in his forties and he was praying for his father forever to come to16:12 Christ and it was a word of knowledge. It was really a gift of faith where the holy spirit said, your father is gonna come to Christ. And he waited and kept praying and waited and kept praying and waited and kept praying16:24 and you would ask, aren't you getting tired or discouraged? And he would say, no, no, no. I was given this word of knowledge. I was given this gift of faith. I will not waver no matter how many naysayers there are and at16:35 99 the dad turned his life over to the Lord. That's from the Holy Spirit. That was a gift from the Holy Spirit. Now the next miraculous gift in this list, verse 9,16:48 to another faith by the same spirit. Now Paul is not referring to saving faith here. You must have saving faith to come to Christ. So he's talking to believers. They already have saving17:00 faith. You have saving faith if you're born again. That's how we received Christ. We repented and believed that was our saving faith. What he's talking about here is when the Holy17:11 Spirit gifts you with extraordinary supernatural confidence that something is going to happen. You have no idea when it's gonna take place, but nothing is gonna17:23 stop you from believing because you have been given this supernatural gift of faith. It doesn't matter that the odds are against you. It doesn't matter that logic is against you. It doesn't matter17:34 that waiting is against you. If you've been given the supernatural gift of faith, you will never waver. Just this past week, a friend of my wife's17:46 texted her to let her know that supernatural gift of faith that the Holy Spirit gave me for my family a few years ago, that my kids would end up growing up on a17:58 ranch. They weren't on a ranch. That they would be able to have animals and this is the way God designed them and once he gave me that, I never wavered. The money didn't make sense. The season of life didn't make sense,18:08 but she texted to let us know we're living on this big old ranch and look at these pictures of my kids and they were their animals and they're running around. She never wavered. All the naysayers said that can't happen.18:18 It's not logical. You don't have the money but it is the supernatural gift of faith and God will give those. Now the next 1 is the18:30 supernatural miraculous gift of healings by the 1 spirit. Gifts of healings. Now, most of our English versions didn't do a good job of translating18:42 that. It's actually literally in the Greek gifts of healings. The new King James has a correct gifts of healings. Now saints, there is18:54 massive confusion amongst Christians about this spiritual gift. First, we need to know that there's no such thing listed in the bible as the gift of healing.19:06 There never has been. There never will be. There isn't a gift of healing. It's gifts of healings, and there is no 1 person who possesses the gift of healing that19:18 can heal at will anyone, anytime, anywhere. Even the apostle Paul couldn't do it. The apostle Paul received lots of gifts of healings from the Holy Spirit to give to people he was19:30 ministering to and he faithfully gave it to them and they were healed, but he couldn't heal on demand. It says in Philippians 2, he left Epaphroditus sick and moved on. He left Trophimus sick at Meletus. He19:41 could not heal on demand. He left Timothy sick with stomach issues and told him to drink some wine. Paul could not heal on demand. He couldn't even heal the own thorn in the flesh. The19:53 only person in history who has ever permanently possessed the gift of healing is Jesus. He's the only 1 and so what happens is that the Holy Spirit though wants to20:05 give us gifts of healings because in his mercy, he loves to supernaturally heal people. Now suppose after this service, a man comes20:17 up to me and he says, pastor John, I've suffered for 10 years with migraines. Would you pray for my healing? Of course. I'm gonna pray for his healing. I believe God can heal. I believe God loves20:29 to heal and I'm gonna pray with faith. Well, right as I get to start praying for this guy, the Holy Spirit gives me a gift of healing for him. All of20:41 a sudden, I am praying completely differently. I am praying with a kind of faith that I don't think God can heal. He loves you. God is going to heal this man right now because I'm gonna give him this20:53 gift of healing and I pray and he's healed. Guess what happens? Jesus gets the glory. I get the joy and he gets the gift. 5 minutes later, another guy comes up and he says, pastor21:04 John, I've had migraines for 20 years. Would you pray for my healing? Of course, I'm gonna pray for his healing because I believe God can heal. He loves to heal and he's merciful on his people. So I start praying for21:16 him and I pray a prayer and nothing happens and God doesn't heal him because the spirit never gave me a supernatural gift of healing to give21:28 him. Now church, whenever God chooses to miraculously heal in this lifetime, it's always for his glory and the person's good. Amen? When God says21:39 no to a divine healing for 1 of his people, it's always for his glory and, the person's good. Amen? You guys didn't sound as enthusiastic as I was when I was over here. We know that's true because God does21:51 everything for his glory and for his people. He always does what's good. We don't know what he's unfolding in this person's life. We have no idea, but we know if he says yes or he says no to a healing,22:03 it's always for his glory and for the good of the person. That's how we pray for that. Now it's a great place to point out that the 21 spiritual gifts listed in the22:15 New Testament really fall into 2 categories that some bible scholars use and I like it. I think it makes sense. We can back it up biblical. Look at number 3. There are22:27 spiritual gifts that are permanent and residential and there are spiritual gifts that are occasional and circumstantial. There are spiritual gifts that are22:39 permanent and residential in every believer. The gift of leadership, the gift of teaching, the gift of administration, Those are permanently with you. They're resident in you. You can22:51 use them anytime. It's a choice of your will. In fact, I have the spiritual gift of teaching. If somebody woke me up tonight at 2 AM in the morning and handed me a biblical text,23:02 Once I woke up, I could teach that using my gift of teaching. I could explain it and then put an application for that person's life. It's residential. It's permanent. I could do it23:14 anytime. My wife, Beth, has an outstanding gift of hospitality and so wherever we go, she is using that gift of hospitality and making everyone feel like they're the most important person in the23:26 room and that we're all home and we're a family together. She can do that anytime, anywhere as a choice of the will. Those are permanent and residential. The other ones are23:37 occasional and circumstantial. Only God can give them in his perfect will and his perfect timing. We cannot demand them. When I was praying for this23:49 guy with a migraine, he gave me an occasional circumstantial gift to pray into that man's life. I could not demand it. In fact, I couldn't duplicate it 20 minutes later because24:01 gifts of healing, the miraculous gifts, are occasional and circumstantial. Now no 1 permanently possesses the gifts, gift of healing besides24:12 Jesus. Even though that's true, there are believers who seem to have an unusual frequency of praying for the sick and they get healed. Do you know anybody like that?24:25 They don't permanently possess it. They can't do it on demand. They can't do it every time but they have an unusual frequency that when they pray for people, someone is miraculously healed.24:37 All I can think of with those believers is, first of all, they earnestly desire spiritual gifts. The Holy Spirit sees them and then they're like the people at the Nuggets game like, please please24:48 please give me another spiritual gift so you get the glory, I get the joy and they get the gift. Second of all, I believe they're humble because God gives grace to the humble25:00 and spiritual gifts are a gift of grace. So the Holy Spirit knows they're humble. I can trust them with this gift. And the third thing they have a track record of is they don't want to steal any glory from25:12 God. They're not gonna use this gift to heal and say, look at me. You're not as spiritual as me. I am a healer. They don't do that. They say, this is amazing. I want to grow25:24 in humility, more of Christ, less of me, but I want more of them and oftentimes the Holy Spirit will entrust those gifts to those people. Okay. The next miraculous gift in verse 10,25:36 to another the working of miracles literally translates working of mighty powers. We see this kind of mighty power in the earthly ministry of Jesus. We have25:47 40 recorded miracles of his. He did more, but there are 40 that are recorded and the kind of mighty power he showed is that he has the mighty power over creation because he's the creator. He could walk on25:59 water. He could say to the storm, be still, and it's still. He has that kind of mighty power. He showed in his earthly ministry that he had mighty power over death because he can26:11 raise the dead. That's mighty power. He also showed that he had mighty power over satan in the demonic realm and he cast out lots of demons. He defeated satan once26:23 and for all. That's kind of what we're looking at when there is a gift of the miracle of mighty powers. Now, as 1 bible scholar puts it, this gift of the working of26:34 miracles is the supernatural ability given to a believer to pray and see the mighty power of God is going to be manifested in this situation, in this26:46 person, or in this group. It goes against all natural laws. It's the mighty power of Christ but it causes lots of awe and worship. Well, I was really26:58 thinking through, have I seen this recently? The gift of the mighty miracle working power given to any believers at Brave and what the spirit brought27:10 to my heart was the new ministry we have called Brave Deliverance Ministry because we have found out that there are a lot of Christians who are saved yet still in bondage.27:22 They're forgiven but they're not fully free. They still have a stronghold, a demonic stronghold around some part of their life and thinking. They have a strong man that won't let27:34 go of them and we in our own power can't do anything about that. It's the miracle working power of Jesus that sets the captives free. So as we have trained biblically27:45 with this deliverance team, that's what they do. They do everything in the name of Jesus in their identity in Jesus because that's where the miracle working power is. Do you understand that when you say Jesus' name, it27:57 sends shock waves in the demonic realm. That's how powerful it is. And so that's what they use in their deliverance ministry, the mighty miracle working power of Jesus over the demonic realm28:09 and praise God we're seeing people get free. Amen. You're gonna hear more about that ministry. Okay. The next miraculous gift, verse 10, to28:20 another is given prophecy. Now prophecy is always from the Holy Spirit. It's a supernatural revelation. It's not a hunch.28:33 It's not a good guess. It's not a conjecture on my part. It's always a supernatural revelation and 1 thing we can know if it's really a word of prophecy from the holy spirit, it will completely harmonize with the word of28:44 God because the Holy Spirit wrote the word of God. Why would he give us a word of prophecy that isn't completely harmonized with his word? So that's the first test when we believe that we're getting a word of28:56 prophecy. Now here's how this spells out in the local church. Let's say that I'm praying for my brother down here with the ERT and as I was praying for him this29:08 week, the Holy Spirit put a vision on my heart. It was a picture of him and his family and they were in a certain scenario and I thought, well, that might just be29:20 bad pizza. I'm gonna keep praying about it. Next day I have the same vision. Now I know that is a gift of prophecy from the Holy Spirit, but it's not mine. I'm just the mailman.29:33 So I go over to my brother and I say, first of all, I have to go humbly to him because God gives grace to the humble. I cannot say to him, thus saith the lord. Only old testament prophets and new29:44 testament scripture reading apostles could say, thus saith the lord. I have to go to him and say, you know, brother, I was praying for you and your family this week and this vision kept coming on my heart and I wanna29:55 tell you what it is. It's not my job to interpret it. I just deliver it. So I give it to him. Now he's got it. My job is done. I was the faithful mailman. I did it30:07 humbly. I get the joy. But he has a ministry to do too. It's in first Thessalonians 5. I think we're gonna put it on the screen. This is his ministry. Do not30:19 quench the spirit. Do not despise prophecies but test everything. Hold fast to what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. So he takes30:30 this vision, prophetic vision. I gave it to him. He starts praying over it and testing it because that's what you have to do when you receive 1 from somebody. And after a couple days, he's30:42 like, this is dead on. Jesus really does love my family because he confirmed something we've been praying about with this vision that was delivered to me by a brother in Christ.30:54 Or he may pray over it for a few days and go, yeah, that's from the Lord. That's from the Lord. I don't know what that is. It doesn't ring true with me at all, but I'm gonna accept these 2 because those are from the31:05 Lord. I'm gonna do away with what's not from the Lord. That's how prophecy works in the local body. The Holy Spirit wants to pour out so many more prophetic gifts to us to give to each other.31:17 It's the way he turns a crowd into a community of Christ. Saints, at biblical truth number 4. Biblical truth number 4, prophecy is a31:29 spiritual gift that should be growing in frequency in these last days. That's biblical. That prophecy is a supernatural gift that should be31:40 growing in every church in these last days. You're looking to me like prove it biblically. Let's flip over to acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, it's the31:52 day of Pentecost where the holy spirit of God is poured into every believer. Up into this point in the old covenant, only certain priests, prophets, and kings had the Holy Spirit, but now it's every believer. That's what32:03 the prophet Joel prophesied that that day is coming and now it's here. So Peter stands up now that everyone has the Holy Spirit and this is what he quotes from the prophet32:15 Joel, acts 2 verses 17 and 18. And in the last days, it shall be, God declares, I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. Your sons,32:27 your daughters shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams even on my male servants and my female servants. In those days, I will pour out my32:39 spirit and they shall prophesy. Now, notice it didn't say, in the end times, I will pour out my spirit because the last days of the New Testament32:51 doesn't mean end times. There is a season coming called the end times that is right before the return of Christ. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen? That's the end times. The bible33:02 clearly teaches that whenever you see last days, those last days started at the perfect life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We are now in the last days. That's what we're in and what's supposed to be happening33:14 in the last days. Your sons, your daughters shall prophesy. Are they? Do they understand what that is? Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. Young men shall see visions. Your old33:26 men shall dream dreams. I am not hearing enough visions and dreams at Brave Church. That's what's supposed to be increasing. That's why I believe the Holy Spirit brought this teaching so we get it. It's not weird. I33:38 don't have to fear it. They are gifts from the Holy Spirit. Now, I'll give you a couple real life examples. A couple months ago, I'm in a senior leadership team meeting here at Brave33:50 and we're rejoicing at every wonderful thing God has done, the way he just miraculously brought all the pieces for Brave Academy. I mean that's amazing and other things, the Colorado Springs campus type of thing and34:01 we're sitting there and the spirit gave me a prophetic word and I did not have paralysis by analysis. I just said it in front of all the senior leaders. I said, I34:13 think the spirit just wanted me to share this prophetic word that what the spirit is about to unfold at brave church, we will not be able to control. Does anyone can34:25 does that resonate with anybody in here? Doesn't that sound like the holy spirit? He doesn't share Jesus's glory with anyone and I repeated it 4 weeks later. I said, I34:37 want to remind you of what I really believe the Holy Spirit gave me this prophetic word that what he's about to unfold at Brave Church, we will not be able to control. We'll be able to just go on the ride with him.34:47 That's what it's going to be. And I believe that's totally scriptural. Now sometime before that, I had a real warrior, this sister in Christ, come up to me at Brave. And as I had been squeezed34:59 on every side by the Holy Spirit and I had gotten to the point I was squeezed so much, I started calling this season the beautiful crucible. The spirit kept tightening and tightening all these pressures, I35:11 realized, but he's doing a beautiful work. He's pruning me. There's flesh that is being pressed out of me and she came up to me and said, John, I was praying for you I believe the spirit35:23 wants me to share with you that he's preparing you in this season of pressing for a greater influence in ministry. I mean, that was dead on. I said35:34 to her sister, you are hearing from the Holy Spirit because that totally rings true with me. Jesus got the glory. She got the joy. I got the gift. That's how it works. Alright. Next35:46 miraculous gift as we're going into verse 10. To another, the ability to distinguish between spirits. This is a special ability from the Holy Spirit to recognize the influence35:58 when the Holy Spirit is in a person or situation. Conversely, it will help you recognize when the situation of the person is demonic and36:09 carnal in a particular situation. Now my wife, Beth, operates in this gift a lot. The Holy Spirit gives her a lot of gifts of discerning in36:21 spirits. Just a few months ago, she was involved with extended family on a project and they brought in some outside people and right away the spirit said, I wanna I wanna protect your extended36:33 family. So I'm gonna give you the gift of discernment of spirits and right away she knew. That guy? That guy is demonically influenced. He's coming here to divide.36:45 This is what He he has no good motives. So she humbly shared that with the other family members and they didn't see it and so she just kept holding onto it and kept praying36:57 and waiting for the opportunity to share that and then it finally came to light. They found out he was masquerading as an angel of light. It was demonic behind him. He had a former37:09 really terrible criminal record he had lied about and it was because the Holy Spirit loves that family that he gave her that gift of distinguishing of spirits to say, this is of the37:21 Lord. This is of carnal flesh or of the enemy. Okay. Last 2 miraculous gifts. We're bringing it in for landing to another various kinds of tongues to another37:32 interpretation of tongues. Now, right up front, let's just be honest. There are many people in this room have a really bad taste when they hear the topic of tongues. Isn't that37:44 true? It's because you've seen abuses. You've seen someone get up in a public gathering and share a tongue and there was no 1 there to interpret and it was really weird and37:57 awkward and people just moved on. That was not of the holy spirit. That was not obedient to the scriptures. Or you've known someone who was given the spiritual gift of tongues and they wore it as38:08 a superiority over people who have not been given that gift. Those are the abuses. That's not from the Holy Spirit. In fact, acts chapter 2 on the day of38:20 Pentecost, we see that the apostles were given the supernatural gift of tongues. It was a known foreign language so that they are preaching the greatness of God and the38:32 gospel in the language of every foreigner who is visiting Jerusalem for Pentecost and these foreigners were shocked. How do they know our language? That is 1 of the38:44 uses of the spiritual gift of tongues, and that can still happen today when the Holy Spirit wills it. But Paul gives us some interesting38:55 information in first Corinthians chapter 14. He pulls back the curtain on his personal devotional life and what he is teaching us is there is39:07 a private use of the spiritual gift of tongues between him and Christ and he is the only 1 there. It's a heavenly language. He doesn't evenShow more
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