The Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Part 3
In the last part, we talked about the gifts of the Holy Spirit that are mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11. We already discussed the gifts of wisdom and knowledge. We have also discussed the gifts of faith, healing, and miracles. Here, we will continue discussing two more of these gifts. We thank God for these gifts, which are a blessing to the church and which we need today more than ever.
The sixth gift mentioned in the list of 1 Corinthians 12 is the gift of discerning spirits. In this era, this gift is very necessary. We are in the last days of the world, and without a doubt, the enemy is attacking strongly with deception and lies. Sometimes we need this gift to discern whether what someone tells us spiritually is from God or not. There are many teachers and prophets today who are false, and we need this gift to discern whether they are true or not. And obviously, the Bible helps us a lot with this. Another thing in our day is to discern whether someone has problems that are caused by demons and not just mental or emotional. Due to the
growth of witchcraft and other evils, people with problems with demons have also increased. We need this discernment of the Spirit to recognize and help in these situations. An example is in Acts 16. Paul was there preaching, and there was a young woman with an evil spirit of divination. For several days, this girl followed Paul and his friends, shouting that they were servants of God. Finally, Paul said in Acts 16:18, “This went on for many days. Finally, Paul became so annoyed that he turned and rebuked the spirit, saying, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her! And at that moment the spirit left her.” (NIV.) With this gift, Paul discerned this evil spirit and cast it out in the name of the Lord. We need this gift today in the church to help and protect us.
The next gift is the gift of prophecy. This gift, like all the others, is a great help to the church. It is something supernatural from God for the church. This gift is sometimes seen through a very anointed sermon that is like a message directly from God to His people or to certain individuals. It is something special to minister to the needs of His people. Sometimes it can be a word from God to someone to help them with a decision or direction in their life, and it is very similar to the gift of knowledge that we already discussed. Sometimes someone within the church receives a direct word from God for the church, and this is this gift at work. And, this gift can sometimes be used to show something of the future, and there are still people today who are prophets because of this gift.
Pastor David Wilkerson, who died in 2011, sometimes showed this gift in his ministry. He was the founder of the great Teen Challenge ministry, which is still helping troubled youth. In 1974, he wrote a book called The Vision. It was very prophetic, and almost everything he wrote about what would happen in the future has already happened in the world. For me, it is an example of this gift today. There is still prophecy through the Spirit. And like all gifts, it is to lift and bless the church and not as a spectacle or to lift up a supposed prophet. Another thing to know today is that there are some people who feel led by God to give a personal prophecy to someone to help them. We must be careful with this. For God does use people in this way, but this should be to confirm something that God has already spoken to you through His Spirit. We all have the Holy Spirit within us as Christians, and we are guided by this Spirit and by the Bible. For example, if a supposed prophet comes up to me and says, “Brother Bruce, God is calling you to Afghanistan,” I will say thank you, but I will not go there until God tells me directly. But thank God for the true gift of prophecy, which helps us greatly.
We will finish talking about the last two gifts in the next lesson, which are, the gift of speaking in tongues and the gift of interpreting tongues. These normally operate together, so we will focus on these two in the next message.
Once again, thank God for these gifts that help and strengthen us. If you are going through something difficult today, God has help and grace for your life today.