How to Discover and Activate Your Spiritual Gifts

we're going to be in first corinthians 12 and what i'm going to show you here from the scripture is what the bible teaches concerning the spiritual gifts i'm going to teach a little bit about what these spiritual gifts are then i want to show you how to discover your spiritual gift so if you have a question in regards to what spiritual gift god has given to you specifically then you're definitely going to want to stick around for that part and then toward the end i'm going to address how to activate the spiritual gifts and there'll be a lot of talk on that i'm sure so first corinthians 12 i'm going to begin at verse number one we're going to look at what paul the apostle writes concerning the spiritual gifts and we're going to glean truths that we as we go verse by verse right now and really take a deep dive into what the spiritual gifts are really when you think about it they're super powers think about that the spiritual gifts are superpowers they're super in that they're above and beyond us and their powers in that their abilities they are literal superpowers now first corinthians chapter 12 beginning at verse number one i'm reading out of the nlt for those of you who are wondering paul writes now dear brothers and sisters regarding your question about the special abilities the spirit gives us i don't want you to misunderstand this you know that when you were still pagans you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols so i want you to know that no one speaking by the spirit of god will curse jesus and no one can say jesus is lord except by the holy spirit so paul the apostle is talking to the corinthians now the christian corinthians had come out of a lifestyle of paganism the corinthians lived in demonic influence they worshiped false gods they interacted with demonic powers they used sorcery they lived perverted lives there was an old saying in the ancient world and that saying was to live like a corinthian and to live like a corinthian meant you were just living in a state of debauchery you were living on the wild side so the corinthians were a wicked civilization and now paul the apostle is talking to the christian corinthians the ones who came out of that lifestyle and had entered into the salvation that christ jesus offered so paul the apostle writes these first three verses here because he doesn't want the corinthians to confuse the power of god with demonic power in other words he writes here you know that when you were still pagans you were led astray and swept along in worshiping speechless idols that's verse two so he's talking about their past he says when you were pagans you worshipped idols well what did that idol worship include it included perverse sexual acts it included as i was alluding to earlier uh interaction with demonic beings it included the practice of sorcery so the corinthians practiced sorcery they had demonic power so the corinthians had demonic power before they came to christ so paul the apostle has to lay down a distinction here and he has to show them that there is in fact a difference between the old power that they used the demonic power and the new power that the holy spirit offers to them now at this point so he says so i want you to know that no one speaking by the spirit of god will curse jesus and no one can say jesus is lord except by the holy spirit so he draws this distinction and he basically is saying that you can discern the source of power by what the user of that power does with the lordship of jesus so when somebody points to jesus when somebody teaches the lordship of christ when somebody is centered around jesus then they are very likely using god-given power now this is not necessarily an absolute fail-safe because we know that matthew chapter 7 talks about those who cast out demons in the name of jesus who prophesied and jesus didn't even know who they were so power alone is not a demonstration of your salvation but if you're looking for a way to discern between demonic power and god's power then paul the apostle gives you something here which is to look at what they do with the lordship of christ so no one is going to be able to curse jesus if they truly have the holy spirit and no one can say that jesus is lord except by the holy spirit now paul the apostle here is not saying that someone who is saved or someone who is in the demonic world can't literally pronounce the words jesus is lord that's a common misconception because there are some hypocrites there are some fakes there are some people who live very demonic sinful lifestyles who can say those words jesus is lord rather what he's talking about is the overall emphasis of their ministries the testimony of their lifestyles does it point to the fact that jesus is lord do the miracles they demonstrate point to the lordship of jesus do their teachings point to the lordship of jesus do their lifestyles point to the lordship of jesus does that power ultimately glorify jesus and so this is how you can tell if someone is using sorcery or the power of the holy spirit by what they do with the lordship of jesus this is why i say it's very important that those who have the gift of prophecy not just have prophetic services that those who have the gift of healing not just have healing services you'll notice that when you're in a service where it's all gifts but no glory all power but no presence that there's something off about it when you miss the substance of christ there is something off about that service and if there's just a demonstration of gifts without the preaching of jesus well now you're just getting into charismatic witchcraft and the people who use these gifts will point to themselves without recognizing and honoring the lordship of jesus it's possible to abuse a spiritual gift in that way so make sure that when you're using the spiritual gifts you're using them to fulfill their purpose you're using them to fulfill god's purpose and not your own agenda your spiritual gifts are given to you to point to the lordship of jesus and to edify the body of christ period so amen the gift of healing should point to the healer the gift of prophecy should point to god all of the spiritual gifts should ultimately point to jesus and his lordship and if they don't then i think it's safe to question the one using those gifts and if you're not questioning the source of their power then we are at least safe in questioning not criticizing but questioning uh their motives so let's go down now to verse four let's read verses four through six the bible says there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same spirit is the source of them all by the way have you ever been in a service where it was all gifts demonstrated but no talk about jesus almost like you went to see a psychic where they told you about your business is going to be successful here's your account number here specifics but there's no mention of jesus how did that make you feel let me know so verse 4 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 now did you notice that verses 4 5 and 6. take a look at this i'm going to read it one more time and tell me if you see a pattern here 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 well there we see the spirit the lord who is the son and god who is the father we see the father the son and the holy spirit in verses four five and six so there is a mention here it's a subtle mention to the trinity why is there a subtle mention to the trinity in first corinthians 12 when paul is writing about the spiritual gifts this is because the trinity the holy union of god trinity tri-unity all three as one worked together to decide which spiritual gifts you would get really think about this it is the spirit who distributes the gifts but who is the one behind those spiritual gifts it's the trinity the spirit and the son and the father and they all in unity decided which spiritual gifts you would be given think about that the father the son and the holy spirit all had a meeting before time began and they among themselves as one god decided which gift you would have this is why i believe the scripture says in romans chapter 11 verse 29 for god's gifts and his call can never be withdrawn for what the trinity decides in unity can never be undone the source of the gift is the trinity they decided in unity and actually i believe another reason that the bible mentions the trinity here in a subtle way is because god wants us to learn from that unity and just as the father the son and the holy spirit are one so we should be one when using our spiritual gifts and it's our unity that brings forth the greatest form of power when demonstrating the spiritual gifts there is power in unity and the spiritual gifts are at their peak when you and i are united with one another so verse number seven first corinthians 12 7 says a spiritual gift is given to each of us why so we can help each other so the gifts are for service not for status a spiritual gift is not a reward it's a responsibility it's not for show it's for service it's not to lift your name it's to lift your brothers and sisters in christ if you look at a spiritual gift as a way to position yourself in authority if you look at your spiritual gift as a means to becoming important if you look at your spiritual gift as a way to benefit yourself then you're looking at your spiritual gift with the wrong perspective come on we need to see the spiritual gifts for what they are they are tools that god has given to us that we might glorify the name of jesus and help our brothers and sisters in christ it's not again for show it's not again for self-promotion it's not for status it is for service that is the purpose of the gift given to you now the gifts work most powerfully in unity as i mentioned earlier go down to verse 12 where the bible says first corinthians 12 12 the human body has many parts but the many parts make up one whole body so it is with the body of christ verse 13 some of us are jews some are gentiles some are slaves and some are free but we have all been baptized into one body by one spirit and we all share the same spirit yes the body has many different parts not just one part so all of us together use our gifts in unity again it's no mistake that paul subtly references the trinity in the previous verses this is because the trinity is the ultimate demonstration or the ultimate example of unity and just as the father the son and the spirit are one so you and i should be one in the spirit when using the gifts not for status but for service and that produces the greatest demonstrations of power the spiritual gifts are at their peak when we live in unity we can't criticize others just because they don't function with the same gifts that we have come on now this is not a license for someone to go make up weird biblical doctrines and say well this is how god uses me and so if you criticize me that's unbiblical no because there are some people who do get a little too weird with some things that are completely unbiblical they go completely off the wall and then they want to use that defense saying well god uses me differently no god has a standard for how he uses people the holy spirit has the protocol god is the god of order the scripture sheds light on how god uses people but i'm not as a teacher going to criticize a prophet because they don't teach as much as i teach i'm not as an evangelist going to criticize a pastor because they don't evangelize as much as i evangelize i'm not as someone with a gift of healing going to criticize someone with a gift of discernment for not praying for the sick as often as i do all of us have different gifts and therefore all of us will have different ministry emphasis and all of us will have different methods by which we carry out our spiritual gifts we cannot criticize each other just because one emphasizes one thing over another so long as we're all emphasizing christ so long as christ has brought us to that point of unity so long as we agree on jesus we can all do things in our own way according to our own gifts with the different methods and styles that god has gifted to us we must learn to embrace the other gifts in the body of christ we must learn to embrace our fellow brothers and sisters who have been gifted by god in different ways remember this everyone every believer you will ever meet is more like jesus in one area at least than you are wow there are some people who are more like jesus in a different area than you are every believer you will ever meet is more like jesus in at least one area than you are so there's some believers you'll meet who are more patient some who are more loving some who have more faith to pray for miracles some who have a stronger gift of prophecy some who have a greater gift for preaching and teaching wow and so on and so forth so we can glean from one another rather than competing with one another we should complement one another in coming together in unity and using our gifts to further the kingdom of god and to carry one another into destiny we must learn to be united and you notice that after paul the apostle here talks about being one body that he then goes into first corinthians 13 where the scripture talks about love you know that scripture or that portion of scripture that talks about love love is patient love is kind of not envy it does not boast all of that comes right after first corinthians 12 right before first corinthians 14 where paul talks about order in worship so all of these things really work in harmony as do the spiritual gifts so we must learn to embrace other spiritual gifts and other people who may do things differently than you and i do them so what are the spiritual gifts well the spiritual gifts listed in first corinthians 12 these are the nine spiritual gifts and that's what's most often referred to as these spiritual gifts but there are other gifts that christ has given to the church that our spiritual in nature and would therefore fall under the category of spiritual gifts so they may not be the nine spiritual gifts that paul the apostle talks about but they are still spiritual in nature and they are still gifts and so therefore they are still spiritual gifts in principle but found in another portion of scripture first ephesians chapter 4 verse 11 says this now these are the gifts christ gave to the church the apostles the prophets the evangelists and the pastors and teachers so this is the five-fold leadership these are the five-fold leadership gifts first you see the apostle then the prophets then the evangelists and the pastors and the teachers now there's some debate about whether or not pastors and teachers is one gift like a pastor teacher combo but uh just for the sake of conversation and simplicity we'll distinguish the pastor from the teacher just for this portion of the message steve you said something oh no i'm just looking at the chat here and uh it is such an interesting topic and i wanted to go back really quick to the point that you made that their gift needs to point to god and i think a lot of people that's resonating with a lot of them because they're agreeing a hundred percent and i can't agree more with that so powerful powerful teaching so far and again guys hit that like button comment and say amen in the chat if you agree okay so the leadership gifts thank you very much steve the apostle let's take a look at this one first now that word apostle simply put means one cent on a mission they practice the establishment of new ministries and work so for example paul was an apostle to the gentiles in other words he was the figure that god used to break the gospel through to a new group of people which is us and so an apostle is someone who takes the gospel to a new region to a new culture to a new people group sometimes and most often that people group that nation that region has never had the gospel preached to them before but an apostle is basically one who begins new works for the sake of the advancement of the gospel now what an apostle is not an apostle is not a pastor of pastors you'll see some people starting these networks of pastors and they got their own little ponzi scheme going they make you pay a fee to be ordained under them and they've got nothing but a business card to offer you that's not what it means to be an apostle to be an apostle is one sent by god on a mission someone who has been chosen and gifted to spread the gospel in a way it's not been spread before or to take the gospel to regions it's not been taken before i believe for example in modern day apostles because i believe there are apostles to the online community there are apostles for online ministry establishing pioneering a new way of taking the gospel around the world and i believe god is raising internet apostles that doesn't mean they were ordained online it means that they're apostles to online communities so an apostle just so happens to become a pastor of a pastors because of the nature of what they do but it doesn't mean that everyone who is a pastor of pastors is necessarily an apostle again don't fall into that ponzi scheme mentality where if i go and start an organization where i can ordain people that i can therefore pass out my card and put the title apostle on there make people pay a fee call them pastors and pretend to be some spiritual father to the nations no that's not at all what the scripture is describing when it talks about apostles the bible makes it clear that an apostle is one sent on a mission someone particularly who has a a call to go and break the gospel through to new people groups to new regions to new cultures and so forth so an apostle is one sent on a mission they just so happen to become pastors they happen to become a pastor of pastors because of the nature of their work they begin new works they begin new churches they begin new ministries they reach new people groups they are builders in the kingdom of god number two you see the prophet i mean a true prophet i'm not talking about cold readers and guessers you know there's somebody here you're sitting down do you know someone with who who has a name that starts with the letter m as if that's what the holy spirit is literally whispering to their ear as if the holy spirit doesn't know their name there's a difference between a cold reader and a prophet there's a difference between a psychic and a prophet there's a difference between the gift of prophecy and pulling people's information from off of facebook so prophets are given the oracles of god they can hear from god concerning the future they hear from god concerning the state of a nation and god will always use his mouthpiece to break through to the people so god sends a prophet when there's confusion god sends a prophet when people aren't hearing from god god will anoint and send a prophet when others are not living according to his standard and he's searching for someone that he can use to bring correction and bring his church back to that standard god will bring someone forth baptize them in fire speak a message clearly to them and then they as a messenger of god will go and deliver that gift that message to a people god will often anoint a prophet to be a prophet to a certain nation or to a certain church or to a certain individual or to a certain people group or to a certain culture god uses his prophets often in very specific ways this doesn't mean that all prophets have to just speak to one people group or a nation but that's often the way that it occurs so prophet is one who speaks forth the oracles of god number three the evangelist an evangelist is one who wins souls someone who preaches the salvation message and is graced by god with such an anointing when they deliver that salvation message that the hearts of the sinners are convicted and open to receiving that message an evangelist is one who burns for souls i'll tell you what an evangelist is not an evangelist is not one who simply travels around the world and preaches in churches though that's part of the job of an evangelist it doesn't mean that everyone who travels is an evangelist so get that out of your head that an evangelist is just a traveling preacher no an evangelist is a soul winner and because an evangelist is a soul winner they just so happen to travel a lot because they have a passion to take the gospel everywhere and this is what's so important about being an evangelist is that your job is to bring in new people to the kingdom of god of course it's the holy spirit through you but as an evangelist your focus is souls souls souls souls not to entertain the body of christ not to make the body of christ feel bad through preaching down to them not to just travel the world and go get to see cool places an evangelist is a soul winner and they will go wherever they think they can win souls that's what an evangelist is number four we see the pastor now in acts chapter 20 verse 28 the bible says so guard yourselves in god's people this is the charge given this is what paul told to the ephesian elders in acts 20 28 so guard yourselves and god's people feed and shepherd god's flock his church purchased with his own blood over which the holy spirit has appointed you as leaders so pastor is a leader now i think we have another misunderstanding here and that we imagine that the pastor is the head of the church no christ is the head of the church and the pastor is one of the five-fold ministry gifts so i think we kind of view it like if it was an army that it's like ranking like it's the apostle and then the pastor and then the teacher evangelist and prophet are all rank and file under the pastor i had someone ask me one time they said so what do you call do i say i'm evangelist that's who i am they said oh wow do you think god will ever promote you to being a pastor and i thought well i don't know if it would be it definitely would be a change i don't know if it exactly would be a promotion but that's how they kind of see it like okay you know when you're young you're an evangelist then as you get older and you mature then you become a pastor and then you become an apostle but no i mean we're all called to different things so i'm an evangelist that's what god has called me to do even if i ever establish a community of believers where we localize and meet that doesn't mean that i'm not still primarily an evangelist so i think that we have to get that out of our heads that the pastor is the boss of the bosses it's not really how it goes an apostle can be the leader of a church a prophet can be the leader of a church a teacher can be the leader of a church it just depends who god has put in the place of that church leadership and of course pastors can also be leaders of the church the local church and i'm not speaking of the church as a whole i'm talking about the localized bodies of christ so hebrews 13 17 obey your spiritual leaders and do what they say their work is to watch over your souls and they are accountable to god give them reason to do this with joy and not with sorrow that would certainly not be for your benefit so god does appoint spiritual leaders over you who have spiritual authority over you now this of course does not mean that a spiritual leader can go and abuse your their gifts and lord it over your life i mean i i've heard of some churches where they have to ask their pastor if they can change jobs they have to ask their pastor if they can take a certain course in school they have to ask their pastor if they want to move to a different house they have to ask their pastor if they want to go on vacation like like a child coming asking for permission from their mom or dad that's not at all what a pastor was ever meant to be a pastor has been given to us by god to guide not control and here's a little hint for you wow if someone has ever told you that if you leave them that you'll never fulfill the call of god for your life then they're manipulating you that's witchcraft and that's not leadership that's witchcraft you need to get out from under that that's control that's manipulation that probably functions more like a cult than a church again another hint if they ever manipulated you and told you that if you leave them that you'll never fulfill god's call apart from them that's manipulation that's the red flag time to get out of there and don't let it bother you i had someone call me one time a guy who was very gifted as a prophet i was going to a church where it was just it was an ugly situation and i knew it was an ugly situation and the holy spirit told me to call this guy and give him a word so i thought it was interesting i'm like here's an evangelist calling a prophet to give him a word from the lord so i called him just i was in prayer the holy spirit put him in my mind so i called him i said hey my friend the lord wanted me to tell you something i said you've been wanting to change churches because of the spiritual and emotional abuse that you've been going through i knew nothing about this all i knew is what the holy spirit told me i said you've been wanting to change churches because of the emotional and spiritual abuse that you have been having to endure he said yes and then i said this i said your pastor told you that if you leave them that you'll be cursed and you'll never fulfill god's will for your life wow he began to weep he said that's what they told me i haven't told anyone and this has just been weighing on me i said well this is the word of the lord to you you're free to move on god has called you to different places and wow he was broken free from that religious spirit not because it made nothing to do with me it was the holy spirit so in looking to the apostle the prophet the evangelist the teacher and the pastor we have to make sure that while they guide us they're not called to control us they're not your spiritual boss they're your spiritual guide now don't make it hard on them because some of us need a good rebuke some of us need to be corrected some of us need to be told no for certain things so there's a balance to this some people say i don't want anyone telling me anything i only follow jesus well if you follow jesus that means you follow scripture and if you follow scripture you're going to follow man because the bible tells us in hebrews 13 17 that god has placed certain men and women over you so we can't be of the rebellious mindset either neither can we submit our lives to the control of a man or woman who is not truly shepherding us but they're actually manipulating us so there's a balance to be had here don't live in rebellion and don't live as a loyal servant or subject or slave spiritual slave to someone who told you that they have the spiritual headship over you and therefore they treat you like a um a bodyguard or is that famous armor bearer line you're more of a you're more of a butler than you are an armor bearer and you're doing things for them that they probably should be doing for themselves and then they're telling you that that's your service to god no that's not what i'm talking about here there's a balance to this no you shouldn't rebel against spiritual headship god has given you spiritual headship that is a fact you can't deny that that's in scripture at the same time we mustn't be subject to spiritual abuse there's a balance to be had and that balance is found in scripture so that's the gift of the pastor they're called to shepherd they're called to guide they're called to teach they're called to encourage they're called to get involved with your life keep you accountable and help advise you along the path to your destiny in god number five teachers now some are very gifted at making sense of the word of god in other words they take a complex reality from the scripture they take it simplify it and give it to you in one two three so a good teacher will take a complex subject and make it very simple and immediately applicable a bad teacher will do just the opposite they'll take something so simple and they'll make it super complex make you jump to all these hoops to try to get the benefit of that truth and that's not at all what a teacher is called to do a teacher is called to simplify and feed you god's word some would say like for example and i hear this a lot too steve they'll quote first john 2 27 they'll say god has given me an anointing i don't need any man to teach me right well first john 2 27 was basically saying that you don't need anyone to teach you or confirm to you your salvation because the holy spirit is that inner witness in you but god would not give us teachers if we didn't need to be taught i mean can you really imagine that jesus saying here's a gift i'm giving you here's a teacher but you don't need them come on that's just ridiculous to think that way and we mustn't think that way now the bible does have strict rules for teachers the bible says in james 3 1 dear brothers and sisters not many of you should become teachers in the church for we who teach will be judged more strictly i see a lot of this there's a lot of damage done by people who aren't gifted to teach trying to teach i mean they can go through the same style as a teacher they can break it down step one two three they can try to use logic and reason they can line up a nice outline but some of the things that people teach are so off the wall so unbiblical that i think i can't help but think of this verse right i mean just because you have a desire to teach doesn't mean you've been gifted as a teacher just because you're arguing a point doesn't mean you've been gifted as a teacher just because you have a passion for the word doesn't mean you're gifted as a teacher the bible says not many of us should become teachers we're going to be judged more strictly so the goal as a teacher is to look at the word and say how can i convey what's in the word to the people of god it's a gift it sure is exactly romans 12 7 i'm glad you said that i was just about to read it romans 12 7 if your gift is serving others serve them well if you are a teacher teach well so that's a spiritual gift now this doesn't mean that you can't share your faith if you don't know the greek in hebrew this just means that if you're going to teach the body of christ as a positioned leader in the church with the authority that god gives to church leadership that you'll be judged more strictly and you should therefore be called by god as a teacher so that's apostle prophet evangelist teacher and pastor let's take a look now at the service gifts now on an aside please note that all spiritual gifts are for service remember first corinthians 12 7 the spiritual gifts are given to us that we might help one another serve one another edify one another so all spiritual gifts are for service not for status the only reason i call these the service gifts is to give them a category so don't think too much into that some people say well if i say these are the spiritual gifts some people will say well all spiritual gifts are for service yes of course we know it's just the name of the category okay so there is the gift of exhortation romans 12 8 the gift of giving romans 12 8 the gift of leadership romans 12 8 and 1st corinthians 12 28 there's the gift of service that's romans 12 7. and then there's the gift of administration or help says first corinthians 12 28 as well so the gift of exhortation is powerful and something you should know about the service gives is that these gifts may not seem supernatural in nature on face value so you may look at some of these spiritual gifts and you can say i could encourage someone without having a spiritual gift for it and that may be true you can probably encourage someone without having a spiritual gift for encouragement but there's something more powerful about a spiritual gift that enables you to encourage than say just you encouraging on your own now explain that in a moment for example the gift of exhortation this is the spirit empowered grace to minister god's encouragement to believers in such a way that they are lifted out of their state of loneliness imagine having that ability to speak words or just be around someone and by your mere presence by your mere words that god uses that person is broken out of that heaviness from which they've been under and this is the power of the gift of encouragement so you may look at the gift of healing and say that's a real powerful gift you may look at the gift of discernment say now that's one i want you may look at the gift of prophecy and say that's the ultimate spiritual gift but let's not forget about the service gifts either these are powerful in their own way and they shouldn't be overlooked they shouldn't be neglected and they certainly should be used if you have them the gift of exhortation is not just encouraging people it is having a supernatural ability within you to break people out of the place of discouragement what an anointing from god think about that that you can go to someone steve and and you can go to someone and they're they're down they're dejected they're in a lowly state and somebody else may try to encourage them they can't break them out of it someone else goes they can't break them out of it another person tries they can't break it out of them and then you go with the gift of exhortation and you go right into that dark place and you begin to speak the truth of the word of god and your presence and your words are graced by god to break off that power of depression to break off that loneliness that heaviness that's the power of the gift of encouragement so please don't mistake these gifts for lesser gifts these are powerful powerful gifts so you know i i just want to say too my goodness i i think the the gift of exhortation is so key and i think a lot of us christians think oh well it has to be some super super spiritual person that can lift me up the power of your words and the power of the holy spirit dwelling within you to say those right words to the person that needs it can completely change their life so i think the gift of exhortation is so so beautiful you have that gift steve by the way thank you steve montezuma has the gift of encouragement i've seen it happen people really broke in you know i come in there as a teacher sometimes and i try to teach them out of their discouragement steve will come in and within three minutes they're out of it and that's a gift that's on steve's life so i've seen it demonstrated in his life and in fact your mom has that gift oh man if you guys ever met my mom she would literally lift your lift your day up in in a second she's powerful so yeah i think again the gift of exhortation is such a beautiful gift and i think all of us as christians need to understand and harness this gift and uh we can use it my goodness it's there it's in this we had a friend in the hospital you remember this steve we had a friend in the hospital he had gone through surgery the surgery did not go well so he found himself staying in the hospital for a much longer period of time i mean and he was suffering like right he was coughing there was there was phlegm in his in everywhere it was a bad situation and it was a little scary because it could have taken a turn for the worse i don't think it was in a very bad place his symptoms were causing him to suffer quite a bit but it wasn't quite that dangerous but it could have very easily gone that direction so i remember being in that room with him i had spent the night a couple nights to kind of stay with him with help with the iv help with the different things that he needed help with so his parents could go home and get some rest so i was there staying a few nights with him in fact i wrote part of carriers of the glory while i was in the hospital there yeah so i'm there i'm staying with him and i'm watching different people shuffle in and shuffle out and they're all different pastors different leaders different prophets different people with all these different gifts they're coming in they're trying to talk to him and he's just he's not having any of it he was just in a mood he was not having any of it he was pretty upset i remember and he was very dismissive of all these powerful leaders and just didn't want to hear it and then steve your mom came in she very quietly came into the room i'm talking like just just this grace on her she comes in she sits down and just two or three minutes talking very softly to him right oh my gosh it was like she stirred up some spiritual wins in that hospital room just by just gentle very calm very graceful began to speak and within a matter of minutes there was a shift in him and he began to recover faster the whole mood shifted just just by her being there for just two or three minutes the whole thing shifted and that was the gift of encouragement in action and that's what you should be asking the lord for the gift of encouragement is a powerful one amen the next one is the gift of giving this is the supernatural generosity of god in you this is not just giving a lot of things this is not just giving a lot of money this is the generous nature of the holy spirit manifested through you think about that that you can have the generous heart of god in you to where you have an inclination to give of yourself to give to others that's not just a personality trait that is a spiritual gift the gift of leadership just like the gift of exhortation the gift of giving and the gift of leadership may seem like normal abilities that you can see anybody use but these are different because these are not just human ability these are spirit empowered abilities and so there's a stronger grace a stronger effectiveness to them the gift of exhortation the gift of giving the gift of leadership that's the holy spirit in you pooling on people to follow pooling on people and causing you to have influence and favor that when you speak the room goes quiet when you walk in you are noticed and god doesn't do this just for you and you but that's part of the gift of leadership the gift of service now the gift of service is the spirit enabled ability to see and meet needs anywhere in the church yeah you may think that someone with the gift of service oh that guy he just sweeps or he just cleans the church or he just helps with the potluck or he just greets people no no no no no the gift of service is the ability to by the holy ghost to see the need that is such a rare thing because people come in and out of the church all the time right not realizing that there's so much that needs to be done they come and enjoy the service and they're gone but the person with the gift of service comes in and they start to notice things they start to look for areas where they can help they start to offer themselves by the spirit they they not only have the ability to see but the spirit gives them a willingness of heart to meet those needs that others would not have otherwise met so it's not just being a servant the gift of service is by the spirit being able to see where you're needed and the spirit empowered willingness to fill those needs then there's the gift of administration the gift of administration is the holy spirit's organizational abilities in you i can't tell you how many times we've seen growth in our ministry when we cater to the gift of administration you may think that systems are not of god that's nonsense name anything that god has ever done that was disorderly name anything that god has ever done that didn't work with a system god created the universe that's a system he created the solar system that's a system we live on earth which is an ecosystem our bodies our nervous systems and our bodies have all sorts of different systems at work within us the church of jesus christ the church that he founded is a system never mind with all this foolish talk of all i don't want to be about part of organized religion what you want to be a part of unorganized religion come on you want to be a part of disorderly religion no you want to be a part of organized religion the true religion as james describes it you want to be a part of god's orderly system the church of jesus christ that's who we are we are the church we're a system so when you begin to implement systems pastor please hear me evangelist please hear me youtube preachers please hear me when you begin to implement systems you will begin to see growth this is why you need the gift of administration i tell every ministry when they come to us say what are the keys to growth how do we grow a partner based how do we grow our events all i say what you need is people who are organized god has given to you this gift through people it's the gift of administration next we see the power gifts how's the chat doing by the way um they are loving the teaching so far and i think that last point that you just made i think administration as like um as i'm looking at these comments they're flying by but a lot of people are kind of saying oh wow didn't realize it but that does make sense he is the spirit of excellence there's excellence even in heaven i mean we read in the scriptures and as the chat's going up i can see everybody saying so good powerful powerful amen this is what we need right now so a lot of people are receiving they're understanding yeah beautiful you know that's really a lot of what i've heard in the past of people saying well i don't want it's the church is too organized and they say you know things like let's take it outside the four walls of the church like no let's not let's keep it in the four walls of the church so we can be organized and evangelistic this of course does not mean that we don't go out to reach people that's not what i'm saying at all what i'm saying is there is order in god's church what i'm saying is that we need these systems we need the four walls right because it's within the four walls that discipleship occurs and if you're doing within the four walls what you should be doing then you don't have to worry about telling people go outside the four walls because they will go and live it no matter what you tell them right so let's let's let's be done with this this this this it really is it's a it's an immature mindset let's be done with this immature mindset that tells us that we don't need to be organized that let's just wander the streets and creep people out and tell them weird things no that's not what we want to be doing as the church okay what you want to be doing as the church is delivering a very clear message you want to be demonstrating the power of the holy ghost and you want to do this in an orderly way and please don't hear what i'm not saying of course i love street evangelism right so so don't misunderstand what i'm saying and if i may say uh and in regards to order i think when the body and i've seen it i've seen when there's order in the church when there's order from the order in the church and you see the spirit of excellence when disorder comes everybody kind of notices it because when you're in the mindset of order and doing things with excellence if there's something that comes and tries to dis disrupt it or get it out of order not only do does the pastor in the head see it but everybody sees it so when everybody's on the same page of okay we're going to do this with excellence we're going to do this with order i think it really really uh helps the body and it moves the body forward like you're saying and that's so true and so again let me emphasize this because i already know there's going to be comments when you don't believe in straight evangelism you know i do but what the problem is is that people they they they demonize they they treat like villains the ones who are organized and have large ministries and meet in church buildings that's not necessarily a problem in fact that's how jesus ran his ministry where did he teach in the temple where would he go from city to city you think he just showed up in the city with no plans whatsoever just started talking to the air no they planned things they worked on events they they really used systems jesus was teaching in the temple he didn't just wander the streets like a hippie waiting for the next instruction from god no he had a plan god would speak to him and he would carry out that plan so we have to stop pretending that systems don't matter anyway amen let's go now i want to i want to teach you a few more things i'm going to talk about the power gifts i'm going to give you just a few facts about the spiritual gifts and then i want to tell you how you can discover your spiritual gifts okay so let's go now to power gifts power gifts let's look at the gift of prophecy that's romans 12 6 and first corinthians 12 10 the gift of prophecy is different from the office of the prophet i'll simplify this for you the office of the prophet is a leadership position the gift of prophecy is a layman's power so the office of the prophet comes with a certain level of authority and influence within the church you want to know the difference between the gift and the office of the prophet simple two things authority and influence that's it so someone with a gift of prophecy can deliver a message from god to an individual to the church or whoever god wants them to deliver that message someone who is a prophet of god is positioned in the church as a leadership figure who has the authority to shepherd and guide god's people along with the pastoral gifts so a prophet comes with authority and influence to give to prophecy is the function of delivering messages from god then there's the gift of discernment this is first corinthians 12 10 or the distinguishing of spirits now this right here should not be mistaken it's not the gift of criticism there are some people who say oh i have the gift of discernment so they're like looking over at people constantly oh i have to get the discernment there's just something about that guy i don't quite know what it is well you don't quite know what it is because you don't have the gift of discernment what you have is suspicion okay don't mistake your own personal discomforts and suspicions for the gift of discernment it's not the gift of criticism it's not the gift of calling people out you'd be amazed that what people try to try to try to pretend is the defending of the faith no defending the faith is not calling people out right defending the faith is not criticizing other preachers defending the faith it's not building a whole ministry on tabloid-like videos and articles where you do nothing but bash men and women of god no the gift of discernment is simply being able to distinguish what spirit someone is coming in whether by the holy spirit the demonic spirit or even the spirit of man that's all it is you can distinguish between those it has nothing to do with being overly suspicious and cynical and having this disposition of okay you convinced me the gift of discernment is not skepticism the gift of discernment is not criticism the gift of discernment is not cynicism the gift of discernment is simply the ability to distinguish between spirits period how many of you have ever had to deal with your own suspicions and sometimes we do and if we're not careful we can encourage each other in in being in the flesh so in other words i've seen it happen online i've seen it happen online more often than i can count where someone will comment something this guy's false because this this and this and then someone will comment below you know what i had a feeling something was off thank you for confirming wow thank you for confirming it that's called confirmation bias in other words they wanted to believe something was wrong and so they just waited for someone else to say something and everyone jumps on the bandwagon and in their unity they think that they're right but that's just nonsensical it's immature that is not the gift of discernment next we see the gift of healing now some have said that the gift of healing is the ability to receive your own healing this can't be the case because first corinthians 12 7 tells us that the gifts are given to us to help others so me being healed doesn't necessarily help someone who is sick so the gift of healing is the ability or that spirit empowered grace to heal the sick through you and your prayers there's the gift of miracles which is like the gift of healing something i should comment on here the gift of healing and the gift of miracles those still work under the sovereignty of god just like any other act of god has ever worked the apostles did not work outside the sovereignty of god the patriarchs did not work outside the sovereignty of god so some would say well the gift of healing is no more because we don't see a 100 percent success rate and the apostles had a 100 success rate well not only did the apostles not have a 100 success rate and we can show you that in scripture but the apostles still worked under the sovereignty of god they could pray for the sick but it was still god who decided whether or not that person was healed and the same thing works for miracles come on next we see the word of knowledge and the word of wisdom now the word of knowledge is the supernatural receiving of information that's it it's knowledge that you shouldn't have other than through supernatural means so if i know for example stephen's age i know stephen's age because i know him or i know steven's name because i know him i know it's stephen martizuma you guys know steven's name because you know him but if a complete stranger who was gifted by god with the word of knowledge who had never seen steve's videos who didn't know who he was if he were to say your name is stephen the lord told me that's a word of knowledge right that's knowledge that can be known but it was acquired through supernatural means so it's natural knowledge acquired through supernatural means that's the word of knowledge powerful then the word of wisdom much like the word of knowledge is simply wisdom acquired through supernatural means so knowledge is the receiving of information the word of wisdom is the receiving of solutions both of course by the spirit or supernatural means then there's the gift of faith first corinthians 12 9. now the gift of faith is not the ability to have great faith that's the measure of faith rather the gift of faith is the ability to stir faith in others because remember first corinthians 12 7 all the gifts are for others then of course there's the gift of tongues and the gift of tongues interpretation now the gift of tongues in the gift of tongues interpretation in first corinthians 12 that's a specific reference to the public use of the gift of tongues different than the personal prayer language that we see in first corinthians chapter 14 verses 2 4 and 14. this right here is talking about the gift of tongues and tongues interpretation being used as a pair in a public setting so as it pertains to first corinthians 12 the gift of tongues is the ability to speak aloud the oracles of god the gift of interpretation interprets what was said in a language that could be understood so let's just recap real briefly the leadership gifts that's the evangelist the pastor the teacher the apostle the prophet the service gifts the gift of exhortation the gift of giving the gift of leadership the gift of service and the gift of administration the power gifts the gift of prophecy discernment healing miracles word of wisdom word of knowledge faith tongues and tongues interpretation now i'm just going to share for those of you taking notes a few things that you should note about the spiritual gifts and then i'm going to teach you how to discover your spiritual gifts okay so some things you should know truths about the spiritual gifts number one the gifts can work together see first corinthians chapter 12. number two the gifts can be requested see first corinthians chapter 14 verse one number three the gifts can be imparted see second timothy chapter one verse six number four the gifts can be stirred or activated see second timothy chapter 1 verse 6 also and the gifts can be strengthened or calibrated see romans chapter 12 verse 6. now before i get into how to discover your spiritual gifts let me hear from you chat and don't forget to convert that like button come on don't forget to click that like button lightly whatever you want to do pray for it whatever needs to be done click it get it turned over and go ahead and leave a few comments we are believing god that lives will be impacted by this live stream but we need your help in spreading the message you want to help us spread it just click that like button right now it's right there in front of you it'll take you no more than a couple seconds you do it it's done your part is over and then just start commenting throughout the stream amen so make sure you're doing that make sure you're leaving a like and if you're new to our channel you haven't subscribed yet make sure you're subscribed to encounter tv we pretty much release two videos a day now on weekdays two videos every single day can you believe that steve every weekday two videos are released on encounter tv we also do live streams on wednesday evenings we also do live streams from the events that we do around the world we release content on the holy spirit on prayer on spiritual warfare on evangelism miracles faith these are the topics that we cover make sure you're subscribed to encounter tv and click that notification bell when you do subscribe we also release worship clips we also release footage of the power of god at work and make sure you're subscribed and reuben stop swiveling your chair because it's squeaking thank you ruben reuben was reuben was swiveling and it was very distracting but anyway okay make sure you're subscribed he's here on standby to do your um what is it for the for the q a he'll be helping with that a little bit um and he's also picking the winner by the way so i don't think reuben have you picked the winner yet he says it's a secret okay he's not gonna tell us if he's picked a winner i remember you can only win if you leave a comment so like that's how we trigger the win the the giveaway and comment is how you win the giveaway come on comment like crazy if you're enjoying this message just go ahead and type the number one in the comments section right now and i see a lot of people laughing reuben at your squeaky swivel chair maybe we can put some oil on that some some oil to get that squeaking away come on now okay i'm gonna teach you how to discover your spiritual gift can be very very simple some things you can apply immediately to discover the spiritual gifts okay all right number one you want to know how to discover your spiritual gifts number one desire the scripture says this in first corinthians chapter 14 verse 1 let love be your highest goal but you should also desire the special abilities the spirit gives so here paul the apostle is encouraging people to desire the spiritual gifts to earnestly long for the spiritual gifts you may have heard it said that it's unbiblical or immature to desire a spiritual gift but the bible says that you should desire a spiritual gift so desiring a spiritual gift is not wrong it's biblical now you have to ask yourself a few questions that desire for a spiritual gift from where do you think that came do you think that the enemy gave you a desire for the spiritual gifts do you think that your flesh gave you a desire for the spiritual gifts think about this some would say well maybe my flesh wants the gift of prophecy because i'm being prideful some would say well maybe the enemy is giving me a desire for the gift of healing because he wants to take me out of the will of god but really think about that yes your flesh would desire the recognition or the so-called status that comes about as a result of the use of the gift but the gift itself the flesh would never desire because the gift itself is for others not for self the flesh is selfish the spirit is selfless so a desire for the spiritual gift itself not for what we imagine the rewards are for using the spiritual gifts but the gift itself the ability to help others that desire in and of itself can only come from the spirit and if you're worried about the enemy taking you off track recognize that the holy spirit also puts desires in you and that you can trust him to guide you along the way come on so if there is a desire in you for a spiritual gift it is most likely that that desire for that spiritual gift came about from the holy spirit so it's not unbiblical it's not wrong it's not selfish it's not immature to desire a spiritual gift and if you have that spiritual desire for a spiritual gift then it's coming from most likely the holy spirit your spirit desires the gift itself so if there is an attraction in you to certain ministries because of their spiritual gifts it's very likely that god has given you a similar anointing similar anointings are attracted to one another for example i'm very drawn to evangelists i'm very drawn to teachers i'm very drawn to those who minister the gift of healing i know god has called me as an evangelist with a teaching and healing gift that's who i am in christ perhaps you have a different combination of gifts and yes there could be multiple gifts at work within you perhaps you have a different desire perhaps there's a desire for the office of the prophet maybe there's just a desire for the gift of prophecy maybe there's something in you that wants to encourage others and this is why we must look at the desires that god has given to us it's not unbiblical i'll say it again it's not unbiblical it's not immature it's not wrong it's not selfish for you to desire a spiritual gift for the scripture says you should desire so the purpose that god has given to you is likely linked with the passions god has given to you your purpose is linked with your passion and so i remember being in school by the way i went to a private baptist school for a few years of high school and i remember in our christian history books there were articles about evangelists who god used to cause great awakenings in certain nations and i remember in history class in history class of all places i'm sitting in history class right reading these articles on all of these great evangelists billy sunday george whitfield so on and so on i'm reading of how god used them to turn nations and there is just this fire in me burning as i'm reading of these wonderful servants of god and everything in me is saying lord use my life lord use my life in the same way i want to win souls that desire that passion came about as a result of the fact that god had linked my passion with my purpose and whenever i read of evangelists my heart was stirred maybe when you see the gift of prophecy in action there's something stirring in you there's like a flurry in your soul or maybe when you see someone praying for the sick you're drawn to it like a magnet you're just wrong there's a pooling in the spirit maybe you see someone teaching or preaching or you see someone encouraging or you see someone using the word of knowledge there's this drawing to that that's because your purpose is linked with your passion so number one your desire is very likely a sign of a gift that god has given to you number two recognition now proverbs chapter 18 verse 16 says a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men now this of course is talking about the material world proverbs 18 16 is but it's still a spiritual principle the gift that you use will open doors for you you don't have to force those doors open if god has given you the gift of prophecy you don't have to go around announcing i have the gift of prophecy in fact the very fact that people feel the need to announce these things shows that there's a lack of recognition because there's likely a lack of demonstration so that gift that god has given to you will display itself there's no need to go announcing what you are or who you are or what you've been given or how you've been anointed when god has given to you a gift it will show now this is not to say that you need the recognition of man in order to have your gifts confirmed all i'm saying here is that if the gift begins to flourish if there are signs of that gift in your life that others will recognize it in fact you can probably talk to your brothers and sisters in christ asking them what spiritual gifts do you see on my life and it's possible that they may all come to a consensus because they're seeing a gift at work within you right now number three so number one is desire there's a desire in you that's one sign that you have a spiritual gift number two is recognition that's another sign that you have a spiritual gift number three this one may seem obvious but i'm going to explain it number three is function first corinthians 12 4 says there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same spirit is the source of them all if the holy spirit has decided to give you a spiritual gift that gift will manifest in your life now as i said this may seem obvious but there are spiritual gifts that you are using that you may not even realize that you're using you may just think that you're an encouraging person but is it possible that god has given to you a gift of encouragement right you may think that you just have a passion for souls but is it possible that god has given to you the gift of the evangelist you may think that you're just good at explaining the scripture but is it possible that god has given you a teaching gift you may think i'm just good at reading people aha but maybe it's the gift of discernment you see i talk to people sometimes who are like well sometimes i just know things about people it's strange and i'll say it and they're shocked that i know it and they don't even think twice about it because it's been happening in their lives for some period of time but is it possible that's a gift of the word of knowledge so the function of the gift is a sign of the gift come on and often the function of the gift goes unnoticed in your life so really evaluate your life really begin to look at the ways that god uses you keep your eyes open and start to see the different ways that god is using you in your spiritual gift without you even realizing that it's a spiritual gift and operation right and you'll be well on your way to discovering your spiritual gifts so number one desire number two is recognition number three is function now i wanna show you how to activate your spiritual gifts now when i say activate it's so so important that you understand what i say because there are many people who will criticize that word activate they'll tell you things like if anyone talks to you about activating your spiritual gift run the other way or they'll say things like only the holy spirit can give you a spiritual gift so all this talk of activating spiritual gifts is nonsense it's unbiblical but to teach that is to misunderstand what we mean when we say activate it must be acknowledged first that activation can only come if the holy spirit has given you the spiritual gift only the holy spirit can give you a spiritual gift only the holy spirit can deposit a spiritual gift so when i talk about activating a spiritual gift i'm not talking about deciding to get a gift or learning how to have a gift i'm talking about participating with the holy spirit in the use of that spiritual gift there's nothing that we do that's spiritual that doesn't require our participation when you were saved you surrendered your life to god you believed on the lord jesus right when you evangelize you have to open your mouth to share the gospel when you pray for the sick you have to exercise your faith in praying for the sick for jesus many times said your faith has made you whole so in the use of your spiritual gifts there is participation there must be participation on your part right otherwise it's not a spiritual gift it's god using man that's a spiritual gift it's god using a woman that's a spiritual gift so if a spiritual gift involves both god and mankind then it must require our participation with that gift right so to say that you need to activate your gift is actually biblical i'll show it to you in scripture second timothy chapter one verses five through seven i remember your genuine faith for you share the faith that first filled your grandmother louis and your mother eunice and i know that same faith continues strong in you this is why i remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift god gave you when i laid my hands on you for god has not given us a spirit of timidity but of power love and self-discipline so never be ashamed to tell others about our lord and don't be ashamed of me either even though i'm in prison for him with the strength god gives you be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the good news now there's a lot packed into this portion of scripture but let's first look at the instructions here where timothy is told to fan into flames the spiritual gift god has given to you some translations say stir up the gift now he's being given a command he's being told you stir up your gift you kindle that fire you fan it into flame you activate that activation is the stirring that's participation again this is not to say that we can decide what spiritual gifts we get this is not to say that we can take an e-course and have a gift of the holy spirit when we talk of activating a spiritual gift we simply mean that you participate with the holy spirit in making use of the spiritual gift that he's already given to you wow how do you do that well let's take a look at the portion of scripture that we just read now i believe that timothy is being instructed to use his gift of teaching why do i think that the bible says in verse 8 so never be ashamed to tell others about our lord so that spiritual gift here is timothy's preaching gift or his teaching gift his ability to speak forth things of god that's what i believe is being talked about here now what is he told he's told stir up the gift how does he do it how is he supposed to stir up the gift right there in verse eight so never be ashamed to tell others about our lord so it's really simple how do you stir the spiritual gifts it's a simple answer it's an answer that people won't like some people won't like because they want to skip certain steps but you want to stir up the gift you simply have to use your gifts now people won't like that answer because they want to be given you know like a a ritual to perform right a special prayer to pray a special posture to have while seeking the face of god they want a little checklist that they can check off i did this i did this i did this and now my spiritual gift is strong and i can fill it and i'm confident in it no confidence in the use of your spiritual gift comes as you use it and people don't want to hear this because they want to skip that step where they're shy about it they want to skip that step where they have to just step out in faith and be bold there are no other steps now of course whatever strengthens my spirit strengthens my spiritual gifts so knowing the word time in prayer fasting worship speaking in tongues sure all of these can strengthen the gift but what good is that strength if i'm not going to use it again yes whatever strengthens my spirit strengthens my spiritual gifts so all of those things that we should be devoting ourselves to like pray around the word will give you strength in your spiritual gift but what good is that strength if you're not doing anything with the gift come on you you can't skip this step there is no easy way out there's nowhere you can go in the scripture to find the other answer that you want you can go and find other teachings you can go and find other books you can go and look at other e-courses maybe they'll give you step step step step but the reality if you don't take that first step nothing comes of it so you must step out in faith you want to activate your spiritual gift you want to stir that up you have to use it plain and simple you have to use the gift well how do i know if i have a spiritual gift there's only one way to know it's by the holy spirit and when you believe the holy spirit has given to you a gift when he's spoken to you when you know it in your spirit you must step out and use it and maybe even sometimes you'll know you have a gift but you doubt your ability to use it there's only one way to overcome that you have to step out and use it there are no other steps yes there are other steps to growing spiritually and thus strengthening the spiritual gifts but again what good is that strength if i'm not using it right you want to activate that gift step out and use what the holy spirit has given to you come on if you're being challenged by this word i want you to type the number one in the comment section right now steve how is the chat doing chad is alive and on fire and i think this last point actually in the beginning of the program a lot of people were wondering how do i activate it how do i activate and i told him stick around hold on he's going to get to it and i think this explains it clearly and concisely and i think it's so powerful because like you were saying activating it with your faith a lot of people nowadays are a little afraid do some things but they don't realize that's where your faith should kick in that's when your faith should step in and you should go out and do it my goodness we're called we're called to do what god has called us to do and it takes faith it requires faith so it's such a powerful way to kind of sum everything up here and and just give them uh what what they're looking for and i think this is what they've been looking for and activating their spiritual gift it's definitely what they need and it's definitely what many of them have been looking for but i know for a fact that there are some people who are disappointed with that answer right right they want me to go okay pray this special prayer here it is lord i activate the gift within me i come against all shyness you know they want that or they want oh when you pray make sure you use a certain type of oil or oh you should have someone lay hands on you i mean there's all these different things that that they want to hear yes whatever strengthens my spirit strengthens my spiritual gift but my goodness you have to step out that is the only way that's why you can do a search through the scripture how do i activate this it's not going to be there right i'm not going to find it like i've seen i see i've seen the use of the book of hebrews to try to carry it in with the spiritual gifts by reason of use or something like that i'm thinking that has nothing to do with the spiritual gifts right you want to use your spiritual if you want to activate it step out that's it no other key no other step no other way you have to step out in faith and that is a primary point simple sticking with okay i'm looking at some of the comments here um there's lots of comments coming in right now um joseph just said something interesting he said better to try than i i don't even know it was so quick but i i appreciate the comment um hope spy says amen uh write more says i need to be in one of your services yes come come on down it's going to be powerful on the 25th of july uh benici hans is so powerful nini says you got to just do it um pamela says i will step out into my gifts how many of you will make that commitment let's pray right now in fact do this if you'll make that commitment and you'll say lord i want to just step out and use the gifts you placed on my life if that's you i want you to type two simple words in the comment section just type i'm ready that's all i want you to do type it's a that's the altar call today okay type that in the comment section i'm ready and father i pray in the name of jesus that you would cause us to use the boldness that you've given to us lord we will stir up the gifts that you placed upon our lives thank you that you've given us power over all doubt thank you that you've given us power over the enemy thank you that you've given us power to overcome self and thank you for depositing within us a spiritual gift for you said in your word that each one of us has been given a gift and so i pray today lord that you would stir that gift within them yes lord and that they would stir it themselves by way of use in the name of jesus we pray i want you to say it because you believe it say amen i'm looking at all of you eleanor rk joy elvi reckless willimore jessica uh joseph olga carolina in another encounter tv douglas day harry alpha mercedes bonnie joyce all saying i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready to to stir up those gifts now we're going to get into the q a you can ask questions about spiritual gifts whatever you want before we do that i want to read a verse to you we actually read it during the lesson don't go anywhere continue to like comment share like comment share you guys have almost done it there on the likes remember if you reach 1500 likes it's going to trigger the book giveaway 1500 likes will trigger the book giveaway and when you leave a comment you're entering for a chance to win i asked reuben if he picks someone yet and he says it's a secret so he's not going to let us know so he could be picking them right now as you're typing in the comment section but i do want to remind you subscribe to encounter tv if you haven't done so already content like this is released constantly like two videos every weekday steve releases beautiful worship clips we release footage of the power of the holy ghost moving sermons and teachings on the holy spirit spiritual warfare prayer and the like spirit-filled and biblically balanced that's a hard balance to strike spirit-filled and biblically balanced it goes either way in most cases but here you will find spirit-filled teachings that are biblically balanced you'll see the power of god at work so subscribe join the spirit family subscribe subscribe subscribe click that notification bell when you do okay proverbs chapter 18. i'm going to read something to you now don't go anywhere proverbs 18 16 and then we're going to get into the q a the bible says this giving a gift can open doors it gives access to important people the scripture here is talking about gift giving and how it can open certain doors that otherwise would not have been open now i remember back when we first started on television and i was on charter cable it was charter cable i think was like 60 000 homes in san gabriel valley i don't remember exactly what the deal was but i remember we wanted to switch over to national television we had a team a small team we had some camera equipment we were working really hard to get on national television so i was talking to some of our friends over at trinity broadcasting network tbn at that time was still primarily focused on satellite and cable and so forth as opposed to digital so we wanted to break into television where people can see us as they change the channel on their television screens so i remember we go into a meeting now stephen you went with me i did it was you lenny yeah and isaiah isaiah lopez who's our our ministry cfo we all went to tbn together right i'm sitting there in a meeting we're talking about them picking up encounter tv on their youth network at the time it was called jc tv so jc tv was our open door that we were praying for we knew that if we could just get on a jc tv that would be the next step for our ministry so we're praying god open the door jctvjctv and i'll never forget steve you me isaiah and lenny all went to a restaurant called fin bars little italian restaurant right next to where tbn used to be i'll never forget this we go to fin bars and they're eating dinner i'm paying for it no one realized that the day before i had sown a 500 gift to our church it wasn't anything in particular that i can remember but i remember that i gave 500 now for some people watching that may not be a big deal but at the time i had six hundred and thirty dollars and eighty nine cents in my account six hundred thirty dollars eighty nine cents that was for everything okay that wasn't just for ministry that was i had to live on that six hundred 630.89 and the holy spirit spoke to me to give 500 and so i wrestled because i was more in the flesh back then prayerfully than i am now i wrestled with the lord i said lord you know maybe i should exercise wisdom and give some now and some later but the holy spirit firm with me no sow the 500 so i'm thinking oh my goodness okay i have to sell this 500 so i i sow the 500 and we go over to tbn the next day i'm meeting with the people from tb and i'm trying to convince them to put our program on the air for free mind you i didn't have money to pay them i was asking them for free air time and i had 130 and 89 cents and i was having to pay for the team the ministry team we went as a ministry walk into this restaurant and i remember somebody ordered the mushrooms but i'm thinking why did you order the mushrooms like you could all just get an entree do you have to order an appetizer and everybody got drinks nobody got water i got water everybody else got drinks i didn't really have the heart to tell them not to do that so i'm sweating bullets thinking oh my goodness we're eating this italian dinner and i don't even know if i'm gonna pay for it so thankfully at the end i think i had just enough to cover it but i remember being in that place because the holy spirit told me to sow 500 into a ministry but you know what happened i gave that 500 in faith right i said lord i need you to open a door i need you to open a door i don't know where this ministry would be had god not used jctv during those years i don't know if we would have leveraged been able to leverage anything else like we leveraged that airtime you guys i'm telling you they signed us on jc tv on top of that they gave us free airtime come on yep i'm talking i didn't pay a cent to have them air our program like three or four times a week every single week and it was like a six-month contract or something like that all we had to do was produce it and they would air it and that helped to position our ministry to go to the next level now what would have happened i don't know had i not sown that gift maybe the lord would have been merciful to me but all i know is that i was sewing for a purpose i said lord i need you to open this door god i need you to do for our ministry something miraculous and i stepped out in faith i sowed that seed and the lord met us on the other side of that faith step what is waiting for you on the other side of your obedience what is waiting for you on the other side of that step of faith a man's gift maketh room for him when you place a gift into a ministry when you give to the kingdom of god when you give to the gospel you're sowing a gift now imagine you're giving a gift to god himself you don't give to this ministry you give through this ministry so i want to encourage you now go to davidhernandezministries.com and again we will be getting to the q a right now go to davidhernandezministries.com donate give a one-time gift and then consider becoming a monthly partner ask the holy spirit what you should do some of you can maybe do a one-time gift of fifty dollars and then become a partner for ten dollars a month some of you can do a hundred dollars and then maybe become a partner for thirty dollars a month some of you maybe can do a thousand dollars one time and then become a partner for a hundred dollars a month but whatever you do whether you give a one-time gift whether you sign up to become a monthly partner or whether you do both it doesn't matter just obey the holy spirit who knows what waits for you on the other side of your faith who knows how god will bless your ministry who knows how god will bless your career who knows how god will bless your finances who knows how god will bless your home when you give to the gospel you're saying to the lord lord i'm putting that gift in i'm giving toward your kingdom first i'm going to take care of your house first god and then i'll take care of my own and i'll tell you this i have no regrets any time the holy spirit told me to give that i've given i have no regrets from that i thank god for open doors and only he can open doors only he can open doors we don't know what he has planned for us we don't know that within the next week or so maybe god will turn it around we don't know but give in faith not just to get it's wonderful that he'll bless us but give because you love him give because you trust him give because you believe in what we're doing as a ministry so i'm seeing the gifts beginning to come in from all around the world and i can actually see your name as it comes up like for example i see carla leskowski just gave a one-time gift i see our dear friends the patrick family just gave a generous one-time gift and i can actually see your names coming up again go to davidhernandezministries.com donate look if you're blessed by this ministry you love what we're doing you love the live streams all the live streams all of the content the holy spirit school all of our events it's all donor funded and that's why we can offer it for free to the world but we need you to stand with us spirit family spirit family we can do this as this ministry continues to grow and boy are we growing i mean wait until you see what's going to happen with the youtube channel in the next two to three months i'm serious watch the growth of the youtube channel in the next two to three months we have some major things planned and you are going to see explosive growth i say that by faith in the name of jesus amen so be a part of this ministry help us to continue to go and grow and take the gospel around the world again i'll be able to see your names come up on my phone for those who give at davidhernandezministries.com again davidhernandezministries.com donate and for those of you who are partners tell people why you're a partner let them know why you're partnered with our ministry let them know why you're subscribed why we're connected and help us continue to spread the gospel all around the world i'll be reading those names in just a moment of those of you who gave and i'll also see some on the super chat but thank you thank you thank you for your support we love you guys again david hernandez ministries.com donate you can partner you can give a one-time gift you can do both you can get from anywhere in the world it'll take just a minute or two and now steven mock to zuma will prepare you chat for the q a so right now guys if you want your question answered live right here right now on the stream i am watching the comments go ahead and leave a question in the comments section of youtube i'm gonna try and get to as many as i possibly can today but again guys if you are watching right now go ahead right now like the video comment right now and get your questions ready i'm giving you just a few moments because i know there's a a little build up here so i want to make sure i get as many questions don't all of you jump on the zoom call because it actually affects our viewership i saw about a hundred of you just jumped over to zoom right now don't worry i'm here ask your question and then come right back if you're watching on zoom right i can't see you if you're on zoom i can't see you so it's the same thing as if you watch on youtube so if you jumped over to zoom please come back over to youtube we need you to help build this thing you guys are almost there for triggering that giveaway on the likes i'd like to thank tasha cortez thank you for your one-time gift i'd like to thank yeleni hernandez awesome last name for your very very generous one-time gift that is very generous of you thank you yeleni we appreciate you or yoleni and i also see uh tatiana berio who just gave a one-time gift and they're continuing to come in i'll continue to read it as i see it okay mr mock to zuma all right what do you got for me and oh well before we do i just want to read this comment real quick darlene wanted to share i'm a partner because i want to help reach souls all over the world and david hernandez ministry has changed my life god is doing big things so thank you so much for letting us know how this ministry is affecting you to god be the glory okay so we're going to jump into this right now i see your questions should be interesting yes this first questions or this first question comes from our friend megan megan wanted to know what if you aren't drawn to any of the spiritual gifts you explained in this message what do you do well remember that i had talked about the function actually occurring without us realizing it so if you don't necessarily have a draw to a certain spiritual gift that does that's not a make or break point remember i gave you these things to use in aggregate i gave you these indicators that you could use as you prayerfully seek the guidance of the holy spirit so these indicators are not your safety net per se they're good indicators but ultimately the holy spirit and only the holy spirit can reveal your gift but these are good practice these are good to make use of because they're based in scripture so if you have no desire that doesn't mean that there's no recognition that doesn't mean that there's no function and that doesn't mean that the holy spirit hasn't given to you a gift because the bible says that the spirit has given to each of us a gift that we may help one another so to each means exactly what it means to each we all have a spiritual gift so if there's no desire or no draw per se to one in particular then look at the other two indicators well at the same time seeking the guidance of the holy spirit and i promise you the holy spirit will reveal your spiritual gift we thank you for that question there okay so this next question is going to come from our friend marcus marcus wants to know how much is god influenced and choice influence in regards to your spiritual gift is there a balance per se the deposit is all god the demonstration is your faith plus god's power say that again the deposit is all god the demonstration is your faith plus god's power amen and we thank you for that and again it goes right back to the the point that you're making at the end there activating your faith so activate your faith guys god has given it to you yes sir i see someone priscilla pinto just gave on the youtube super chat ah yes yes and i'm seeing names from all around the world thank you to jeff hoskins for your one time gift thank you to shalom massoh who became a monthly partner thank you to sean subra who also became a monthly partner thank you to jean oh who gave a one-time gift thank you gene thank you to grace muniz who gave a one-time gift thank you grace thank you to rita moore who gave a one-time gift thank you to our dear friend marita beau who also gave a one-time gift and actually let's go over to the zoom and remember don't all of you in fact stop posting the zoom link now because they're all jumping over on there rube no more posting the zoom link whoever's there is there and then and then uh ask your question then come back over because um it doesn't help with the youtube uh youtube watch watch watching now uh statistics so right if you are watching comment comment comment and like like like so that we can garner some of that back and i think in the future maybe we should switch it up maybe where it's a call-in or something anyway uh okay reuben who do we have here amanda welcome to viral revival the holy spirit's live stream what is your question hi can you hear me i can hear you loud and clear cool um my question is how can what's the best way of growing your prophetic anointing that's my question excellent question the first thing that we should ask is is there such a thing as the prophetic anointing acts chapter 10 verse 38 tells us that jesus of nazareth was anointed with the holy spirit and with power so the anointing is singular it's one thing the anointing is the power of the holy spirit just like there are different kinds of cars but the same gasoline so there are different kinds of gifts but the same spirit the same anointing the anointing empowers all the gifts so really the question is how do you grow spiritually because if you grow spiritually then your response to the anointing is more powerful your surrender to the anointing is more complete and the demonstration of the anointing is unhindered because purity equals power so the question really you're asking is how do i grow spiritually because if you grow spiritually then you become more spiritually strong if you become more spiritually strong then whatever gifts that are in you and on you will automatically become more potent so it sounds to me amanda like you're gifted in the prophetic so if you want to grow in the prophetic grow in the word grow in prayer grow and worship grow in holiness grow in evangelism and so forth all of those things that contribute to our overall spiritual growth will ultimately make our spiritual gifts more potent thank you for that question amanda and now reuben we will take another over from zoom who do we have keanu welcome to viral revival what is your question my friend uh good night how does impartiation work and um can you pray for me to receive like the gift of healing properly and stuff later i can pray for it but unless god is giving it it's not mine to give so when it comes to impartation remember that the gifts are given through us not from us ultimately it's the holy spirit who decides who can get a gift so if god tells me to lay hands on someone for the sake of impartation then because the instruction is coming from god it will actually work but if god is not telling me to impart that spiritual gift and i go and try to impart it on my own nothing will happen because it's not mine to give i am not the distributor of spiritual gifts so it happens through us but it only comes straight from god we're vessels he's the source we are not if we lay hands according to his will the gift is imparted if we lay hands not according to his will there is no power to impart excellent question thank you for asking it steve all right this question is going to come from our friend geo over on youtube jeo writes i've heard it been said that some pastors use their gifts in an unholy way is this truly possible if it is a gift from the lord i would say it certainly is especially if you look at matthew chapter 7 you'll see that there are certain people who prophesied in the name of jesus who cast out the the demons in the name of jesus who did many wonderful works in the name of jesus but he never knew them it's possible to demonstrate power without walking in god's presence i believe it happens something like this someone walks with god he deposits a gift they walk away from god he leaves the gift in them and the power that was in them that was supposed to bless others through them ends up actually destroying their lives just like electricity when it's not grounded can fry you so the power of the holy spirit when you're not grounded in christ can take you to places that you never wanted to go so the spiritual gifts on your life are gifts god gives them to you he does not remove them from you when you walk away from him some people use these gifts for their own benefit in fact paul the apostle wrote of people who preached for gain who preached out of impure motives and so he says as long as christ is being preached he didn't say tell him to stop he just said as long as christ is being preached i'm happy so those individuals who use the gifts yes they can use the gifts for self-promotion they can use the gifts for financial gain and that of course is not the way you're supposed to be using them so it is possible yes to use your spiritual gifts in a non-spiritual way we thank you for that question uh did you want to do another youtube question here sure all right this next one comes from our friend andrew ii can you unlock a gift by taking courses online as well as studying under a pastor from online it depends what you mean by unlock if by unlock you mean stir up or activate then i suppose that someone can give you certain truths that will help you to step out in faith and activate that gift or stir it up but if by unlock you mean that you're going to learn some information that's going to cause you to have a gift that the holy spirit didn't put there then no and none of my material is like that in fact some people have had that impression about my material they say oh he teaches people to receive the gift of tongues now i teach them to activate it or stir it up only the holy spirit can cause you to have that gift the same is true of all the other gifts so if by unlock you mean stir up in the sense that it causes you to participate with what the holy spirit already put in you then absolutely you can unlock so to speak the spiritual gifts but if by unlock your meaning that we receive something that god never gave to us then no there's just no way that that could ever work reuben let's go ahead and do a question from sorry steve let's go ahead and do a question from zoom my friend all right jeff welcome to viral revival hey david um so 67 days ago i was basically saved god came to me and i've been walking in faith every step of the way my question would be is the spirit able to talk with me directly by just and i'm yearning for the spirit is he able to to talk with me directly and give me visions like i'm i'm having basically well that's an excellent question and the answer in short is yes the holy spirit can speak to you directly and in visions here's how i would break it down the holy spirit speaks to us first and foremost through the word that is the more sure word of prophecy that is the inerrant inspired word of god that word is foundational and it's the safest way to hear god and i know that's a strange way to word it but i think you understand because some people kind of veer off into these strange spiritual doctrines when it's in fact not the holy spirit teaching it to them so you start with the word the word is foundational the more you understand the word the more clearly you can begin to hear the holy spirit's voice to your spirit so first it's the word then it's wisdom now wisdom is not as reliable as the word but it is in fact a way that god speaks to us that wisdom pulls us to different places that wisdom guides us there's just this inner knowing where we're being directed certain ways it may not be specific instructions but it's wisdom guiding our lives the third way the holy spirit speaks is through whispers this is what you're talking about where he directly speaks phrases and instructions to us that are ultra specific to our lives taylor made instructions from the holy spirit that's good that's a way to hear the holy spirit and it's possible that you hear him that way but if you're not grounded in the word and you're not grounded in wisdom then you're going to have trouble hearing the whispers because the whispers often are affected by our emotions our own thoughts we get confused is this me or is this god after the whispers it's the wonders this is the gift of prophecy these are dreams and visions and so forth so the word first and foremost then wisdom then whispers then wonders thank you for the question my friend steve let's uh welcome you back all right this question comes from our friend jack jack wanted to know at what point do we release the gift we feel confident in and should we seek guidance from our pastors before we do so say that one more time because it sounds like a good one at what point do we release the gift we feel confident in and should we seek guidance from our pastors before we do so the point you should seek to release that gift is when the holy spirit tells you should you seek guidance from your pastor absolutely yes that's why god put the pastors there i i've had so many situations where people think they're called to do something or think they're gifted in something and i've watched their lives and usually the ones who don't want to talk to the pastor know deep in their heart that it's probably not god calling them which is why they avoid the sound wisdom of a pastor right so it's important that we do receive instructions from pastor guidance from our pastors but that doesn't mean they control us again the holy spirit can speak to us too and they're there for guidance and we kind of bounce ideas off of them and they help us discover whether or not we actually really are hearing the voice of the holy spirit because some people don't hear the holy spirit and think they do and it leads to all sorts of foolishness

Channel: Encounter TV

Views: 181,315

Rating: 4.936831 out of 5

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Id: tQOEvPm_0P8

Length: 99min 0sec (5940 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 14 2021