The Spiritual Gifts Explained with Pastor Allen Nolan

tonight i'm going to do a little informal survey if you don't mind raise your hand if you grew up in an assembly of god pentecostal full gospel or charismatic church i i can't raise my hand but i just want to say kind of one two three four five six seven eight nine all right raise your hand if you grew up in a baptist methodist or one of the mainline denominational churches now if you don't know what a mainline denominational church is yeah keep them up if you don't mind let me tell you because more hands might go up mainline denominate denominational churches include episcopalians lutherans united church of christ disciples of christ etc so go ahead one more time if you grew up in that all right i'd say probably 90 percent of you have now the reason i'm asking is is because i'm going to begin a series tonight on the nine spiritual gifts that are listed in first corinthians the 12th chapter these gifts are referred to as the manifestation gifts and if you were raised in an assembly of god pentecostal full gospel or charismatic church you're very familiar with these gifts in fact in all probability you've either operated in one of these gifts or someone has ministered to you through the use of one of these gifts such as prophecy the word of knowledge the word of wisdom etc on the other hand if you were raised in a baptist or a methodist or one of the mainline denominational churches you're probably not familiar with these spiritual gifts at least the spiritual gifts that are mentioned in first corinthians chapter 12 the ones that we call the manifestation gifts in fact you probably been taught that these gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age so when you hear about the spiritual gifts operating in a pentecostal or charismatic church you attributed it to either emotionalism or craziness am i right yeah what did we and i grew up in the baptist church what did we refer to pentecostals as do you remember pew jumpers pole climbers snake handlers why because we thought what they did was crazy now if you grew up in a pentecostal assembly of god charismatic or gospel church don't stone me yet all right now here's what's interesting at least it's interesting from my perspective because i was as i said raised in the baptist church and i had been taught that the manifestation gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age so once i learned that the manifestation gifts hadn't ceased at the end of the apostolic age and i became familiar with them i realized that there were actually people in the baptist church that operated in these gifts they just didn't know it you see in the baptist church we referred to people who were operated in the gifts as being sensitive to the spirit yeah because we didn't know that they were actually operating in the spiritual gifts and neither did they we just thought that they were being sensitive to the holy spirit let me give an example to illustrate what i'm talking about growing up in the baptist church i would hear people say from time to time i was praying the other day and you came to my mind anyone remember hearing anyone say something like that and for some reason i felt like you were going through some type of trial so i started praying for you and i felt like god told me and then they would tell them what they felt like god had told them now here's what's interesting they were operating in the gift of word of knowledge they just didn't know it and neither did the person that they were praying for so they attributed what they had experienced to just being sensitive to the holy spirit or what we would say i heard the voice of god now if you would have told them that they were operating in the gifted word of knowledge they would have denied it because they had been taught that those gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age so instead of calling what they received a word of knowledge they simply called it being sensitive to the holy spirit or hearing god's voice but it really doesn't matter what you call it a word of knowledge is a word of knowledge and it's one of the nine manifestation gifts that's listed in first corinthians chapter 12. now to be honest with you i've even seen the gift of prophecy operate in the baptist church but they just didn't know it because the way it operated was in a way that was acceptable i'm serious i've seen people tell other people i was praying for you the other day and i felt like god wanted me to tell you and they would give that person what the bible considers to be a prophecy sometimes they would write it down on a piece of paper how many of you ever remember being in the baptist church and some grandma came up to you and said i was praying for you and i felt like god told me to give you this and they give you a piece of paper and something's written on it anyone ever see that oh my gosh how many of you didn't really go to church you just went once a month yeah if you didn't go on sunday nights my wife gets onto me we rarely went on sunday nights when i was growing up she never missed did you so she said we weren't real true about this because we just went on sunday mornings and every once in a while the wednesday night but anyways literally i would see this i would see someone come up and say i was praying for the other day and i feel like god told me and maybe they wrote it down or maybe they would just tell them what they thought god told them but they would never call it a prophecy because they didn't believe them to get to prophecy at least they didn't believe that it still existed today why because they've been taught that it ceased at the end of the apostolic age so instead of calling it a prophecy they would say i felt like god wanted me to tell you something but no matter what you call it or how you describe it it's still a prophecy listen to me you can give a pig a bath and you can put lipstick on it but it's still a pig no matter what you call it you know so many times you see people operating the gifts but they don't refer to them as the gifts because they've not been taught on the gifts so here's what i'm saying i've seen the spiritual gifts operate in almost every type of church you can imagine as long as they are sincere christians and their fervent prayer warriors all of the gifts with one exception i've never seen the gift of tongues or tongues of interpretation actually operating gifts that believe that the manifestation gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age now why wouldn't those two operate because those two require an acknowledgement of the spiritual gifts and they don't acknowledge them so therefore they're not going to operate in them but if you get fervent prayer warriors i can remember some of the pastors that would come in and preach and they'd be talking about god revealing to them certain things what was he revealing giving them a word of knowledge giving them a word of wisdom i can remember actually had a lady when we were going to first baptist i was in high school came up gave me a sheet of paper that i was praying for you and this is what the lord said and you know now looking back that was amazing she would have never called it a prophecy but because these churches believe that the spirits of gifts ceased at the end of the apostolic age they just don't recognize them as spiritual gifts or refer to them as spiritual gifts instead what they say is that person is really sensitive to the holy spirit now let me give you one more example this is a true story i once had a mother tell me who went to a baptist church that god woke her up one night and she knew she was supposed to pray for her son because he was in some type of danger she said i was in a dead sleep and immediately i came awake i sat up and i knew i had four boys this son is in danger so she prayed until she felt that everything was okay a few days later she found out that her son had been in a very dangerous situation at the very time that god had awakened her and impressed upon her to begin praying for her son and it was time the type of danger he might not be here today had she not prayed now people that was a word of knowledge she knew something that she had no way of knowing through natural means conveyed to her that something was happening she knew what was happening happening not the details but she knew this son this specific son at this very moment is in danger and if i don't pray something bad it's going to happen people that's a word of knowledge but she didn't think of it as a word of knowledge because she didn't know what a word of knowledge was she'd never been taught anything about the spiritual gifts except that they had ceased at the end of the apostolic age now i'm going to be honest with you if god didn't speak to us today why would i tell you to pray why would we say and as you pray you need to listen for god's voice it's because god still speaks today now we might not refer to them as the spiritual gifts because we might have been raised in a church that didn't believe that those still operated today but i'm here to tell you god is still speaking the gifts are still in operation and as we go through this series i'll prove it to you so what i want to do in this series is to teach on the spiritual gifts and more specifically i want to teach on the ones that are listed in first corinthians the 12th chapter now as i've stated twice already these gifts are referred to as the manifestation gifts and they're different from the gifts that are mentioned in romans the 12th chapter those gifts that are listed in romans chapter 12 are referred to as the motivational gifts and i'll explain the difference between the manifestation gifts and the motivational gifts in another sermon but for now all i want you to know is that there is a difference between the manifestation gifts and the motivational gifts because if you grew up in the baptist or methodist or one of the mainline denominational churches you when you hear the term spiritual gift think of the motivational gifts if you grew up an assembly of god a pentecostal a full gospel or charismatic church when you hear the term spiritual gifts you think of the manifestation gifts not the motivational gifts and there are two different types of gifts and i'll explain the difference between the two later on in the series because in this series what i really want to do is concentrate on the manifestation gifts not the motivational gifts i'll briefly explain what the motivational gifts are but i'm not going to concentrate on those so the gifts that we're going to be studying in this series are the gift of word of wisdom the gift of word of knowledge the gift of faith the gifts plural of healings plural the gift of miracles to get to prophecy the gift of discerning of spirits to get to tongues and the gift of interpretation of tongues but first before we start studying all the gifts and get into them and i show you some examples in the bible of where they're used i'll explain exactly what they are define them and then we'll look at some biblical examples but before i do all that the first thing i want to do is i want to clear up a common misconception that most people have concerning the spiritual gifts and it's the misconception that the spiritual gifts are a sign of spiritual maturity i don't know why but pentecostals and charismatics have the tendency to equate operating in the spiritual gifts with spiritual maturity in other words if you operate in the spiritual gifts you must be spiritually mature but the truth is the gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity but for some reason most of us just naturally assume that they are if someone operates in the spiritual guest they must really be spiritually mature you know i was raised in the baptist church and my mother and my father moved out to oaks and my mother started going to a community church and in community churches it's not a denomination so everyone from different denominations come but in this particular church that they were going into there was quite a few from the pentecostal background and my mother started uh studying and learning about the gifts and she came to me and i told her mom you need to stay away from those things that's not of god it's of the devil and i was really worried about my mother and so i started studying about the spiritual gifts and i wanted to find out why the mainline denominational church is the baptist the methodist believed that they ceased at the end of the apostolic age so what's kind of interesting is i was going to bible college at the time and i was actually getting a degree in biblical greek it's called new testament cornea greek and i was in my second or third year and that's when you do exegesis and so one of my energetical writings was in the book of first corinthians and this is where you take certain verses and you go through them you perform exegesis on them you pull out the meaning from the scripture and you do it from the original language but i chose a passage of scripture actually i didn't choose it the professor chose the passage of scripture in which the mainline denominational churches the baptist methodists believe that the spiritual gift ceased at the end of the apostolic age and that's what i had to write a critical commentary on he had to do projects and so i wrote a critical commentary on it and i was just blown away wait a minute that's not what this is saying so i went to my pastor of the baptist church and i said this is not what that's saying and he looked at me said i know we just don't tell people that oh but here's what's interesting at that point i started venturing into the pentecostal circles charismatic circles and the thing that shocked me the most was to see immature carnal people operating in the spiritual gifts in fact there was a woman that could prophesy like you can't imagine she could read your mail like nobody's business you talk about words of knowledge and words of wisdom man she could weave that within the prophecies that she was giving people it was incredible and yet she was and still is as far as i know one of the most spiritually immature people i have ever known never seen one prophecy like ever unbelievable call you out never met you before not know anything about you and read your mail and tell you things about your heart that no one can know except god and she ran off with another woman's husband unbelievable so my experience with the spiritual gifts has taught me that the gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity now i know and you know that we don't base our doctrine on experience we base our doctrine what the word of god so let me prove to you through the scriptures that the gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity and i'll go a little bit further i'll also explain why people who are carnal people who are fleshly people who are bapes in christ can operate in spiritual gifts but first let me prove to you through the scriptures that the gifts are not a sign of spiritual maturity and let's begin by looking at the characteristics of the corinthian church so turn with me if you would in the book of first corinthians chapter one verses four through seven it says i thank my god always on your behalf for the grace of god which is given you by jesus christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and in all knowledge even as the testimony of christ was confirmed in you so that you come behind in no gift waiting for the coming of our lord jesus christ now there is a lot in this and the reason i didn't use the nlt or the niv is because really it doesn't capture what it actually says in the greek but i don't have time to really pull everything out of we're going to really try and get through this series in about eight weeks and the only way i can do that is to move fast so the thing that i want you to notice in this particular passage of scripture is verse number seven notice what paul said he said so that you come behind in no gift what paul was saying was there wasn't any gift lacking in the corinthian church in other words every gift was in operation not just tongues not just tongues interpretation not just prophecy prophecy we're talking about gifts of healings gifts of miracles prophecy discernment of spirits but more importantly everyone was operating in the spiritual gifts turn to first corinthians chapter 14 verse 23 and then we're going to jump down and look at verse number 26 notice what verse 23 says if therefore the whole church become together into one place and all speak with tongues and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers will they not say that you are mad now of course paul is painting a hypothetical situation here but it's based on what was happening in the corinthian church the implication is that they all spoke in tongues of not all at least the majority of them because if you remember the corinthian letter was actually a response to questions the corinthian church had and one of the problems they had was the spiritual gifts and the way that they operated and so paul is using this hypothetical situation but it's based on what's actually happening in the corinthian church and the implication is that they're all speaking in tongues but someone says that's just a hypothetical situation so look in verse number 26 how is it then brethren when you come together every one of you half the psalm half the doctrine half the tongue at the revelation half an interpretation let all things be done into edifying so as you can see from verse number 26 every one of them operated at least one of the spiritual gifts and yet the corinthian church was the most carnal and immature of all the new testament churches there's not one commentator that will not agree that of all the new testament churches the most carnal and the most immature was the corinthian church now if you ever get a chance to go to to greece you'll go to corinth i've been there fantastic place but what's kind of amazing is and we don't understand this athens was the small city at the time of paul corinth was the huge city it was the dominant city and won't go into the history of why it was destroyed and why it never was rebuilt the way that athens was but anyways what's kind of interesting is it was a very spiritual place especially for the pagan gods and it's really interesting when you think about everything that was happening in the city of corinth and then of course paul comes in and church begins and these people who are new believers are operating in all of these spiritual gifts which brings me to what is the second characteristic of the corinthian church the corinthian church was the most carnal and immature of all the new testament churches and if you don't believe me turn to first corinthians chapter 1 verse number 11. it says my brothers and sisters some from chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you so there are quarrels pastor allen every church has quarrels that's why we have built a large sanctuary someone can sit over there and their enemy can sit over here and we don't ever have to see them on a sunday morning or even a wednesday night right so no big deal let's go a little bit further look at first corinthians chapter 3 verses 1 through 3. paul is describing the corinthian church and i brethren could not speak unto you as into spiritual but as unto carnal even as into babies in christ i have fed you with milk and not with meat for hitherto you were not able to bear it neither yet now are you able for you are yet carnal for whereas there is among you envying in strife and divisions are you not carnal you don't walk as spiritual sons of god you walk as a man so the corinthians were carnal and paul described them as babes now the word carnal is translated from the greek word sarkicos that literally means fleshly but if you want to dig a little bit deeper what it literally means is consumed with the desires of the flesh we tend to think of it as being lustful passions so he describes the entire corinthian church not just a small pocket not just a few of them but you the corinthian church the majority of you you're carnal you are fleshly you're consumed with the desires of the flesh but then he went further and called them babes and the reason he called them babes is because of all the fleshly people babies are the most fleshly babies want immediate gratification at everyone else's expense babies have this bless me mentality people it's all about them and you know that if you've ever had a baby you know when you bring that baby home it's like they don't sleep but maybe two or three hours and it seems like in the middle of the night it's not even two or three hours it's like an hour and so you might go three nights without any sleep and you're pleading with the baby you know how when you get sleep deprived please just let mommy sleep tonight and daddy but that baby's going to cry if the diaper is wet they're going to cry if they're hungry they're going to scream their head off just because they want to be held they could care less about anyone else it's all about them and the reason he says that they are babes it's because he wants to know you're not just carnal let me tell you you are like babies who have this bless me mentality who think of no one but yourself so according to paul the fleshly corinthians who were babes were operating in the spiritual gifts in fact according to him they were not lacking in any gift now think about this if they were carnal christians and spiritually immature why were they able to operate in the spiritual gifts does anyone know i mean we would have expected the church of berea to be the church that's not lacking in any spiritual gift why would we expect the church of berea to be that way because they were more noble they studied the word of god to see if these things are not true man these are the ones who pray they're spiritual why would we expect them to be the ones and not the corinthians because we just immediately equate operating the spiritual gifts with spiritual maturity right yeah now if this is the case why does god allow christians who are carnal christians who are immature babes in christ why does he allow them to operate in their spiritual gifts does anyone know well let me tell you why do what that deals with something else bill but it's a good guess i want to show you grammatically they believed that's a good guess i want to know why god allows carnal christians to operate in the gifts that's the fundamental christian fundamental question that i want to answer here's why if you take notes write this down it's because the spiritual gifts are of grace not works let me say it again it's because the spiritual gifts are of grace and not of works in fact let me show you something interesting about the greek word for gifts the word gift in the bible is translated from the greek word charisma and charisma is a compound word if you've been coming here a while you know what a compound word is right a compound word is a word that's made up of more than one word now in this case charisma is made up of two words it's made up of the root word charis and what does keras mean we were just teaching a series on grace oh i just gave it to you i told you that grace is the greek word karis it's from the root word care but we're not doing that it comes from this root word karus which means grace and the suffix ma mu alpha which when added to a root word indicates the result of the action now let me give you an example to illustrate what i'm talking about the word grapho means to write when you add the suffix mew to it you get grammar which means book or letter but here's what i want you to see a book or a letter is the result of writing so let me just come in and do this for you this is grapho that's not a chi that's a gamma all right gamma rho alpha phi omega grapho means i write and we don't really come in here and worry about this too much because what the suffix does is the suffix tells us um what the tense is what the mood is what the voice is what person it is in fact this is present active indicative first person singular you really don't care about that right if we wanted to know if it was present active naked indicative second person we would come in here and say graph ice so really we don't care about that but we're going to come here and write grapha so when we add the suffix ma to this we drop this suffix and we drop the phi because it's going to cancel itself so what we get is grammar now here's what's interesting we've got this suffix ma now we have grapho which means i write we add the suffix to it ma and now we get the action or the result of the action of writing this word grammar means letter or book what is a book a book is the result of writing what is a letter a letter is the result of writing now let me show you something interesting the greek word for i like to do things big the greek word for grace it's keras if we want to come in and we want to add the suffix to ma because now we want it to be gifts we're going to come in and we're just going to add korea's and the reason this looks different is because if you put a sigma on the end it actually looks like our ass but if it's in the middle it looks like this but all we did was we added the suffix now karis means grace charisma means gift but here's what's interesting this gift is the result of grace that's what chrissa means so the technical definition of charisma is gifts of grace so the reason that spiritually immature the reason babes the reason people who are fleshly can operate in the gifts is because the gifts are not of works they're not the result of praying so much they're not the result of man i read my bible and i've read it through twice in one year i never miss church no the gifts are not the result of works the gifts are the result of grace these gifts are given because of god's grace now because the gifts are of grace and not of works the spiritually immature can operate in them and that's why carnal and immature christians can operate in the gifts so don't ever think that the spiritual gifts are a sign of spiritual maturity because people they're not now because carnal and immature christians can operate in the gifts the bible lays down some very strict guidelines as to how and when they should operate now people that's important so let me say that again because carnal immature baby christians can operate in the gifts the bible lays down some very strict guidelines as to how and when they should operate because what god doesn't want is he doesn't want his church to be a pentecostal free-for-all turn to first corinthians chapter 14 verses 27 and 33 and i'll show you what i'm talking about when i talk about very strict guidelines these are just a few of the guidelines notice what this passage group says no more than two or three should speak in tux they must that's a rule they must speak one at a time and someone must interpret what they say that's rule but if no one is prison who can interpret they must be silent that's a rule in your church meeting and speak in tongues to god privately let two or three people prophesy and let the others evaluate what is said now i'm going to stop right there and we'll keep reading in just a second let me tell you why this is important because some immature baby christians some that are fleshly they get to thinking that because they offer in the spiritual gifts they're this real mature person spiritual let me tell you they're not and i've seen the gifts really cause big time problems i was at a place one time when a person came in and they prophesied to a couple this girl was thinking about breaking up with this boy because it wasn't marriage material he was not i talked about coal in the herd this last sunday he should have been cold he was a loser and this person came and prophesied that they were supposed to get married they're still married to this day horrible marriage i heard it i was young i knew immediately when it was said spoken my god just spoken and said that's not right but i didn't speak it up i was at another place where ma'am is quite a bit older than me and this young man's wife had left him and he was going through a tough time and he came down for prayer and this person pulled me over and said i got a word for him and i came over to listen to this and he started prophesying to him he said your wife's going to be back with you within three days boy god just dropped in my spirit that's not true that's not true but i didn't say anything because i was young but i knew it wasn't right this person was quite a bit older been operating spiritual gifts a long time and he equated operating spiritual gifts with spiritual maturity i didn't say anything three days came and went that guy's no longer in church bitter towards god that's all a bunch of baloney there's a reason why god has very strict guidelines he said let two or three people prophesy let the others evaluate what is said you know pull someone over in a corner let me tell you what god's hand let's go further but if someone is prophesying another person receives a revelation from the lord the one who is speaking must stop in this way all who prophesy will have to turn have a turn to speak one after the other so that everyone will learn and be encouraged remember the people who prophesy are in control of their spirits for god is not a god of disorder but of peace as in all of the meanings of god's holy people now if you really tear this apart people this is ver these are very strict guidelines but if you want to do things god's way and if you want things to be done decently in order these are the guidelines that you have to follow you see one of the reasons that so many crazy things happen in pentecostal churches and charismatic churches is because they don't follow these guidelines you don't have to be careful because i they're my brothers and sisters in christ and i really don't like dissing people but at the same time if you don't teach the truth and you get kind of carried away into that and one of the things we don't do here is we don't tell people in worship just raise your hands of the lord let's all let us all worship the lord in our prayer language we don't do that here why because that's against god's guidelines there's a reason why god gave very strict guidelines and one of the reasons is because in the spiritual realm most believers are on the same level as kindergarteners they don't know proper church etiquette that allows everyone to be ministered to and to grow they don't know when they should speak and when they shouldn't speak so paul laid down certain guidelines and then he went on to write in verses 37 and 38 that you can either acknowledge these guidelines and be knowledgeable or you can ignore them and be ignorant look at verses 37-38 if any men think himself to be a prophet or spiritual let him acknowledge that the things that i write into you are the commandments of the lord but if any men be ignorant let him be ignorant you think i'm rough look what paul wrote if you don't accept what i say is of the lord then you're ignorant there you go that's what basically that's what he's saying we put it a little bit nicer but if you go back to the original it's if you don't abide by what i'm telling you and you don't agree that these are the lord's commandments then i can help you you're ignorant now let me caution you anything that's not used properly has the potential to be very dangerous and a good example of this is paint thinner paint thinner is great when it's used properly but it's extremely dangerous when it's inhaled or if it's drunk by someone likewise people the gifts are great when they're used properly but they're extremely dangerous when used in properly and paul gives us an example in first corinthians the 14th chapter verse 23. notice what he says now i'm using the nlt because it really captures what paul was writing notice what it says even so if unbelievers or people who don't understand these things and the greek it really means unlearned someone who's never been taught so even so if unbelievers or someone who's never been taught who doesn't understand these things comes into your church meeting and hears everyone speaking in an unknown language it's not they might think you're crazy notice what he says they will think you're crazy it's not an if it's not a possibility people it's a fact i can remember the very first time we went into the pentecostal or charismatic circles lisa and i we came out of there and i said wow and lisa said you can go back if you want i am never going back to church like that they're crazy people are sad but most people think that pentecostals and charismatics are crazy and the reason they think they're crazy is because they don't operate in the gifts according to the guidelines now every once in a while i have someone come up to me and they'll say i can't help it when the spirit of god moves upon me it just comes and i look at them very sincerely and say that's a load of crap and then i turn over to first corinthians 14 verse 32 and i read it to him the spirits of prophets are subject to the control of the prophets now notice what the nlt says remember that people who prophesy are in control of their spirit if you tell me when the spirit of god comes upon you you can't control it you're a liar or maybe that's not the spirit of god but i'm here to tell you you can now here's what's kind of interesting the baptist methodist and mainline denominational churches don't like our church because we believe in the spiritual gifts the pentecostal charismatic full gospel who are the others i want to say charismatic did i already say them they don't like us because we adhere to the guidelines and we box in the holy spirit i can't help it i'm going to teach everything that the word of god says now i'm going to be honest with you listen i made this comment it'd be so much easier just to put baptist on our name and forget about this and we wouldn't have to deal with all the problems you guys haven't seen all of them man i had a guy come one time and stood up and prophesied that we were to get our rifles and go to sparrowhawk mountain and we were to completely wipe everyone off the mountain no longer would it be called spare hawk mountain but it would be called a mountain of blood true story right true story wasn't it bill bill was there all my people were like oh my gosh it hurt me believing in the gifts i'm young god called me to preach i'm one of those immature babes i'm obeying god maybe 27 years old this guy is 50. i get up i walk up there and i don't know why but it's just like the holy spirit brought this laughter on me and i just started laughing and immediately people go and then i look over and said we need to talk after the service that's all i had to say but let me tell you i i've seen some really good ones and so when i say it would be easier there's always that fear well you know if we even just say we believe but the truth of the matter is it's here one of the reasons you guys come to our church is because i will teach the truth even if it gets me into trouble and dress me and be easier to say the gifts they ceased at the end of the apostolic age they're no longer in operation today when that which was perfect has when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away with the bible has come we no longer do that that'd be much easier to do but that's not what that means the gifts serve a purpose they're needed the problem is they have to be used according to paul's guidelines that he laid out and he went further and said you need to acknowledge and believe that these guidelines are the commandments of the lord and that's what we read in verses 37 and 38 if you don't believe that then be ignorant so why do so many pentecostal charismatic churches totally disregard the guidelines that paul laid down well it's because they don't understand the purpose of the gifts now when it comes to the purpose of the gifts it differs depending upon who you're ministering to you see the gifts serve two purposes not two purposes for every group of people no it serves one purpose for one group of people and one purpose for another group of people let me see if i can explain this to you if you're ministering to an unbeliever the purpose of the gifts is to convict and compel them to be saved look at first corinthians chapter 14 verses 24-25 but if all of you are prophesying and believe and unbelievers or people who don't understand these things come into your meeting they will be convicted of sin and judged by what you say as they listen their secret thoughts will be exposed and they will falter the knees and worship god declaring god is truly among you now paul is describing here one-on-one prophesying not to the whole church one-on-one prophesy notice that he said their secret thoughts will be exposed that only happens in one-on-one situations so what paul is describing here is prophesying one-on-one and he says in this one-on-one the secrets of their heart are exposed and i know that to be true i can tell you many stories but let me just tell you one you've heard about the one where i was called out really debating on whether going to ministry and said come down off that poll i'm not called you to put in telephones i've called you to preach the word of god person didn't know me but the one i'm going to tell you is a different story i was really having to make a just a tremendous decision and god was waking me up in the middle of the night two or three o'clock in the morning and i was going in and praying and because of the way i am i have the tendency to articulate certain things a certain way have you ever noticed i tell you what to say how to say it and why well i have the tendency to really think things through as a result of that all articulate certain things in a certain way and in this need of mine i was getting up to three o'clock in the morning i was seeking god's face thank god i need an answer and i was saying in my prayers the same thing the same way asking him for the same thing in the same way and that disservice and this person says you there come on up here someone go up there and they start prophesying and of course if you ever heard anyone prophesy they speak as if god is the one doing it and they said i've been waking you up at two or three o'clock in the morning and you've been asking me and she said word for word exactly the same way i was saying it you've been asking me i tell you my son and i received the answer applied the answer all problem solved let me tell you you don't believe in the gifts you let someone call you out read your mail give you a word of knowledge that no one can know but god you become a true believer on the other hand because we're talking about the two purposes if you're ministering to believers the purpose of the gifts is to edify look at first corinthians chapter 14 verses through 5 verses 12 and then verse 26 you'll read those verses and what you'll see is all of the purpose of the gifts is to edify to build people up the whole group not just these one or two people and that's one that that's the purpose of these gifts give you some more scriptures if you want but here's what you need to know edification happens when people know what's going on and they understand what's happening if you ever go to a pentecostal church or a charismatic church that is not operating according to guidelines let me tell you it's wild it's crazy no one knows what's happening let me tell you if you've not been taught all these things man you're saying that's freaky you react like my wife did you can go back if you want to but i'm not ever going back to church like that people there's a reason why we're seeker sensitive secret sensitive is biblical is exactly what paul taught if people come in here and it's a spiritual free-for-all and people say you're mad you're crazy but let me tell you something you become a believer when you come down for prayer and the way we minister in the gifts here is one-on-one we're too big when a person gets up and begins to do something they take control of the service and if you read the guidelines that's not supposed to be that way but our people who are on a prayer team they're supposed to operate in spiritual gifts when you come up if someone reads your mail tells you what you're praying you walk away and you go god thanks that's the purpose of the gifts because we see through a glass darkly but then talking about when jesus comes back face to face and then that which is when that which is purse come then that which is in part should be done away with right now we see in part we know in part but when jesus returns it won't be that way and the gifts truly will cease but until that time let me tell you if you ever needed god to speak to you that's the purpose of the gifts and as i said it would be much easier to operate in a church or to pastor a church that doesn't operate in the gifts because it can get messy but the truth of the matter is i can't deny that the gifts are real they're still in operation and they will be until jesus christ returns but at the same time we make no apologies for being a secret sensitive church and following these guidelines because when you come to cornerstone fellowship you don't have to worry that we're going to get crazy we're going to get crazy tonight like we should be proud of that people we're not going to climb pose we're not going to do jericho march we're going to jump chairs why because according to god's word everything should be done decently in order and people are to be edified and built up and we have a place for the gifts and those gifts are one-on-one they happen down here with our prayer team they happen in small groups

Channel: Cornerstone Fellowship

Views: 6,600

Rating: 4.7860961 out of 5

Keywords: pastor allen nolan, allen nolan cornerstone, allen nolan bible study, allen nolan explained, allen nolan sermon, cornerstone church allen nolan, cornerstone pastor allen nolan, allen nolan, with pastor allen nolan, The Spiritual Gifts Part 1: Introduction and Misconceptions with Pastor Allen Nolan, spiritual gifts, spiritual gifts of the holy spirit, spiritual gifts test, manifestation gifts, spiritual gifts in the bible, manifestation gifts of healing, speaking in tongues

Id: jMSJFfaWxh0

Length: 47min 0sec (2820 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 02 2020