The body of Christ/the many parts
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
In the last blog I spoke to you about some of the gifts of the spirit, and I want to continue along the lines of explaining a little further about those. There is a lot said in the book of 1 Corinthians about the various gifts of the spirit, but what I want us to realize is that all bull these different gifts exist each one of them has the same purpose; which is to unify the body of Christ.
In the book of 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 guns a word tells us "now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. 21 there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one's spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still another the interpretation of tongues. All of these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines." The reason that I wanted to point to this Scripture is that it views these gifts in some what a different light than they are normally studied in. In verse four it says "there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them and all men."
I had spoken to you about the fact that anyone can claim to speak for God and yet we need to be able to discern whether a person who claims to speak for God is actually doing so or is speaking by an evil spirit. It really does not matter what the gifts are, each of these gifts are given by the same spirit and the direction of unity should be the same in the spirit. There has been much said by teachers about the gift of tongues, and exactly what it is. Tongues is not and should not be compared to the gibberish and an unknown language brought about by someone trying to imitate the power of God's Holy Spirit at work in them. Paul tries in chapter 14 to speak to the gifts of prophecy and tongues by simply saying that first and foremost we need to follow the way of love, and also we need to eagerly desire that God would use various gifts in the church. When we speak of prophecy we may think of it as predicting future events, but it's main purpose is to communicate God's message to people by providing insight, warnings, correction, and encouragement. I always like to refer to prophecy as being a form of truth telling. The gift of speaking in a Tom was a concern to the Corinthian church because the use of the gift and caused disorder in worship. At the time even though we know that speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Holy Spirit given on the day of Pentecost it can also be a gift that can be easily used to divide God's people. The Corinthian believers were using it as a sign of spiritual superiority rather than a means to spiritual unity.
There is an important truth to remember about spiritual gifts of any kind, and that is that spiritual gifts are beneficial only when they are properly used to help everyone in the church, and we should never exercise them only to make ourselves feel good. Paul makes a few points about the spiritual gift of tongues that would be wise for us to point out. First it is a spiritual gift from God, and it is a desirable gift even though it isn't a requirement of faith. Another important point is that it is less important than prophecy and teaching. Paul made the statement that he himself spoke in tongues, but he stressed that prophecy, or truth telling; which can also be interpreted as preaching is more important because it benefits the whole church, while speaking in tongues primarily benefits the speaker. For those of you that may be interested to know, I also speak in tongues, but never in public because I feel it is a language used between myself and God's Spirit to relay messages of the heart in prayer that the enemy cannot understand. I believe personally that public worship must be understandable to all men, and it must be edifying to the whole church. I like when I heard from someone who said "a musical instrument must play each note in order for the music to be clear, and so Paul says words preached in the hearers language are more clear and more helpful to them. It is time that we quit closing down on listening to someone speak about God's spiritual gifts, and begin to listen to the words brought to us from those gifts that unify us, and build us up in love in the power of God's Holy Spirit. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
In the last blog I spoke to you about some of the gifts of the spirit, and I want to continue along the lines of explaining a little further about those. There is a lot said in the book of 1 Corinthians about the various gifts of the spirit, but what I want us to realize is that all bull these different gifts exist each one of them has the same purpose; which is to unify the body of Christ.
In the book of 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 guns a word tells us "now to each one the manifestation of the spirit is given for the common good. 21 there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same spirit, to another faith by the same spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one's spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still another the interpretation of tongues. All of these are the work of one and the same spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines." The reason that I wanted to point to this Scripture is that it views these gifts in some what a different light than they are normally studied in. In verse four it says "there are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them and all men."
I had spoken to you about the fact that anyone can claim to speak for God and yet we need to be able to discern whether a person who claims to speak for God is actually doing so or is speaking by an evil spirit. It really does not matter what the gifts are, each of these gifts are given by the same spirit and the direction of unity should be the same in the spirit. There has been much said by teachers about the gift of tongues, and exactly what it is. Tongues is not and should not be compared to the gibberish and an unknown language brought about by someone trying to imitate the power of God's Holy Spirit at work in them. Paul tries in chapter 14 to speak to the gifts of prophecy and tongues by simply saying that first and foremost we need to follow the way of love, and also we need to eagerly desire that God would use various gifts in the church. When we speak of prophecy we may think of it as predicting future events, but it's main purpose is to communicate God's message to people by providing insight, warnings, correction, and encouragement. I always like to refer to prophecy as being a form of truth telling. The gift of speaking in a Tom was a concern to the Corinthian church because the use of the gift and caused disorder in worship. At the time even though we know that speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Holy Spirit given on the day of Pentecost it can also be a gift that can be easily used to divide God's people. The Corinthian believers were using it as a sign of spiritual superiority rather than a means to spiritual unity.
There is an important truth to remember about spiritual gifts of any kind, and that is that spiritual gifts are beneficial only when they are properly used to help everyone in the church, and we should never exercise them only to make ourselves feel good. Paul makes a few points about the spiritual gift of tongues that would be wise for us to point out. First it is a spiritual gift from God, and it is a desirable gift even though it isn't a requirement of faith. Another important point is that it is less important than prophecy and teaching. Paul made the statement that he himself spoke in tongues, but he stressed that prophecy, or truth telling; which can also be interpreted as preaching is more important because it benefits the whole church, while speaking in tongues primarily benefits the speaker. For those of you that may be interested to know, I also speak in tongues, but never in public because I feel it is a language used between myself and God's Spirit to relay messages of the heart in prayer that the enemy cannot understand. I believe personally that public worship must be understandable to all men, and it must be edifying to the whole church. I like when I heard from someone who said "a musical instrument must play each note in order for the music to be clear, and so Paul says words preached in the hearers language are more clear and more helpful to them. It is time that we quit closing down on listening to someone speak about God's spiritual gifts, and begin to listen to the words brought to us from those gifts that unify us, and build us up in love in the power of God's Holy Spirit. May you richly bless God through your life in him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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