1 00:00:03,560 --> 00:00:07,680 You're very welcome to today's Triumph Church podcast. 2 00:00:08,119 --> 00:00:10,440 We pray that you enjoy the message. 3 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:19,240 If you brought your Bibles, tablets, phones, we're going to 4 00:00:19,240 --> 00:00:23,760 begin in One Corinthians chapter 12 this morning. 5 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:28,880 I'm going to be continuing a teaching that I'd begin, I guess 6 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:34,400 3 weeks ago now, the 26th May, I'd talk, begin talking about 7 00:00:34,840 --> 00:00:39,600 spiritual gifts about don't misunderstand spiritual gifts 8 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:41,800 'cause there's a lot, you know, when you start talking about 9 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:45,760 spiritual things, there's a lot of misunderstandings that can 10 00:00:45,760 --> 00:00:49,280 happen, especially if we're basing things on opinion or on 11 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,400 what we've heard instead of on, on God's Scripture, right? 12 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:55,480 Scripture makes everything clear. 13 00:00:55,480 --> 00:00:59,160 And so every, everything that we, we base our life on, 14 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:03,440 everything we base our doctrine on, like it should be founded on 15 00:01:03,440 --> 00:01:06,400 scripture, not my opinion, right? 16 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:10,400 Not your opinion, not the opinion of, of someone that 17 00:01:10,400 --> 00:01:15,440 you've heard on, on YouTube, right, But on Scripture and 18 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:18,400 scripture alone. And I was listening to the other 19 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,520 night with Pastor Amy and there's a, a guy that was on 20 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:26,200 there and he's a, a Bible scholar and he knows a lot of 21 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:29,360 different things, a lot of Greek and Hebrew in things. 22 00:01:29,640 --> 00:01:34,280 And, you know, as as he's talking, I'm like, he doesn't 23 00:01:34,280 --> 00:01:37,720 really actually know what he's talking about concerning this 24 00:01:37,800 --> 00:01:39,320 topic. He's talking about the Holy 25 00:01:39,320 --> 00:01:41,720 Spirit. And I'm like, it's interesting 26 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:46,120 how you can have someone who knows all this Greek in Hebrew, 27 00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:49,200 but then when it comes to something spiritual, you know, 28 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,200 comes to things like the Holy Spirit. 29 00:01:52,000 --> 00:01:54,480 He didn't really know what he was talking about. 30 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:58,400 It's because it's easy to rationalize things with our head 31 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:02,200 and try to have an understanding of things with our head. 32 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:06,080 But have you ever thought about the things of God and tried to 33 00:02:06,080 --> 00:02:10,280 reason God with your mind, right? 34 00:02:10,280 --> 00:02:13,720 God expects us to use our mind. He gave us all the brain here, 35 00:02:13,720 --> 00:02:15,840 right? Everyone has a brain, don't you? 36 00:02:16,280 --> 00:02:18,320 Yeah. If you don't, you're brain dead. 37 00:02:18,600 --> 00:02:20,960 Means you're dead. Everyone has a brain here. 38 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,240 God expects us to use our mind, to use common sense. 39 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:28,840 God's the one that made this squishy matter in our craniums, 40 00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:31,280 right? Like he expects us to use that. 41 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:35,240 But spiritual things can't be understood from here. 42 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:39,800 And a lot of people try to understand spiritual things from 43 00:02:39,800 --> 00:02:44,520 their head, and you can't. There's a lot of incredibly, 44 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,920 incredibly smart people, some of the smartest people in the 45 00:02:47,920 --> 00:02:49,560 world. But when it comes to spiritual 46 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:52,480 things, they're ignorant because they don't know. 47 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:56,640 That's not a bad place to be. Ignorant doesn't mean you're 48 00:02:56,640 --> 00:02:58,840 dumb, right? Ignorant just means you don't 49 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:00,760 know. They're smart people, but they 50 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:03,640 just don't know about spiritual things because spiritual things 51 00:03:03,640 --> 00:03:07,040 are understood from your heart. You can't understand the things 52 00:03:07,040 --> 00:03:11,320 of God apart from your heart, your spirit man, right? 53 00:03:11,520 --> 00:03:14,680 God is a spirit and he speaks to your spirit. 54 00:03:15,440 --> 00:03:17,120 The devil's the one that speaks to your head. 55 00:03:17,120 --> 00:03:20,880 Trying to understand from God from here is impossible. 56 00:03:21,280 --> 00:03:23,520 You can't. You can go to the university and 57 00:03:23,520 --> 00:03:26,760 you can learn a lot of things, but you can't understand God 58 00:03:26,760 --> 00:03:28,440 from here. And a lot of people are trying 59 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:31,680 to, but you can't. So the apostle Paul in one 60 00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:35,920 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse one, and this is a continuation 61 00:03:35,920 --> 00:03:39,680 of that message that I started on the 26th May there. 62 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:42,080 If you weren't here for that, you can go back. 63 00:03:42,080 --> 00:03:45,800 Listen to that online triumph church dot IE it's called don't 64 00:03:45,800 --> 00:03:49,240 misunderstand spiritual gifts. Be good for you to listen to 65 00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:50,880 that. I'm not really going to go back 66 00:03:50,880 --> 00:03:53,040 and review things in there today. 67 00:03:53,040 --> 00:03:54,640 We're just going to continue on from that. 68 00:03:55,040 --> 00:03:57,960 But in One Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 1, the apostle Paul 69 00:03:57,960 --> 00:04:00,600 said this. He said, Now dear brothers and 70 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,840 sisters, regarding your question about the special abilities the 71 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,760 Spirit gives us, I don't want you to misunderstand this. 72 00:04:09,200 --> 00:04:13,480 Many churches avoid the topic of the Holy Spirit in spiritual 73 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:15,680 gifts because they don't understand them. 74 00:04:16,279 --> 00:04:19,959 But Paul expressly stated here in One Corinthians chapter 12 75 00:04:20,279 --> 00:04:25,600 and verse one that he doesn't want us to misunderstand the 76 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,560 special abilities or spiritual gifts. 77 00:04:29,080 --> 00:04:32,800 And as a pastor, I I don't want you to misunderstand what they 78 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:36,360 are either because they're an important part of the ministry 79 00:04:36,360 --> 00:04:39,080 of the church. And we need spiritual gifts 80 00:04:39,400 --> 00:04:43,960 operating in the church and operating in our lives if we 81 00:04:43,960 --> 00:04:47,560 want to be effective in reaching people, right? 82 00:04:49,640 --> 00:04:52,400 So we're going to read on. In One Corinthians, chapter 12 83 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,160 and verse 7 through 11, the apostle Paul begins to kind of 84 00:04:55,160 --> 00:04:57,320 talk about what these spiritual gifts. 85 00:04:58,040 --> 00:05:02,400 All right, starting in verse 7, he says there are diversities of 86 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:06,600 gifts, but the same Spirit and there are diversities of 87 00:05:06,600 --> 00:05:09,320 activities, but it is the same God who works. 88 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:14,520 All in all, verse 84 to 1 is given the word of Wisdom through 89 00:05:14,520 --> 00:05:18,920 the Spirit to another, the word of Knowledge through the Spirit 90 00:05:19,280 --> 00:05:23,480 to another, faith by the same Spirit to another, gifts of 91 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,200 healings by the same Spirit in verse 10 to another, the working 92 00:05:27,200 --> 00:05:30,880 of miracles to another, prophecy to another, discerning of 93 00:05:30,880 --> 00:05:34,240 spirits, to another, different kinds of tongues, and to another 94 00:05:34,240 --> 00:05:37,920 the interpretation of tongues in verse 11. 95 00:05:38,280 --> 00:05:42,720 But one in the same Spirit works all these things, distributing 96 00:05:42,720 --> 00:05:46,800 to each one individually as He wills. 97 00:05:47,560 --> 00:05:49,680 So today I'm going to talk about 3 gifts. 98 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:53,600 There's nine in total, right? We'd be here until late this 99 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:55,520 evening if I talked about all nine of them. 100 00:05:55,520 --> 00:05:57,880 So we're just going to talk about three of them this 101 00:05:57,880 --> 00:05:59,280 morning. And these are three that we 102 00:05:59,280 --> 00:06:03,560 encount would probably encounter a lot, especially in a church 103 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:05,560 setting. And it's these three, the word 104 00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,200 of knowledge, the word of Wisdom and prophecies are called the 105 00:06:10,240 --> 00:06:13,400 utterance gifts. All right, the apostle Paul 106 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:19,200 spends 3 chapters in Corinthians really trying to clear up some 107 00:06:19,200 --> 00:06:23,120 misunderstandings that the Corinthian church had concerning 108 00:06:23,120 --> 00:06:27,000 spiritual gifts. He spends chapter 12, he spends 109 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:29,960 chapter 13, and he spends chapter 14. 110 00:06:29,960 --> 00:06:33,160 What's interesting about that is he talks about spiritual gifts a 111 00:06:33,160 --> 00:06:36,320 lot in chapter 12. He talks about spiritual gifts a 112 00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,440 lot in chapter 14, but sandwiched in the middle like an 113 00:06:39,440 --> 00:06:42,000 Oreo, that creamy inside is love. 114 00:06:42,280 --> 00:06:45,600 Apostle Paul spends a lot of that chapter right in between 115 00:06:45,600 --> 00:06:48,160 those 2, chapter 13, talking about love. 116 00:06:49,200 --> 00:06:52,880 Something that you need to understand is that God knows 117 00:06:53,040 --> 00:06:56,160 everything, right? He knows what's going on in your 118 00:06:56,160 --> 00:06:59,960 head. He knows what's going on in your 119 00:06:59,960 --> 00:07:03,080 heart. He knows what's going on in your 120 00:07:03,080 --> 00:07:05,680 life. He knows what's going on in, in 121 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,360 public, He knows what's going on in private. 122 00:07:08,880 --> 00:07:11,880 And spiritual gifts, the things that he's given that the body of 123 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:14,360 Christ are to help us. All right. 124 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:16,840 And the first thing we're going to talk about this morning is, 125 00:07:16,840 --> 00:07:18,680 is the word of word of knowledge. 126 00:07:19,520 --> 00:07:23,120 The word of knowledge is a supernatural revelation by the 127 00:07:23,120 --> 00:07:28,400 Holy Spirit of certain facts. All right, not all the facts, a 128 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:33,320 small fragment of facts. And sometimes the Holy Spirit 129 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:37,200 takes a small piece of that knowledge that He knows about 130 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:41,800 everything in our lives and gives it to a believer 131 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:46,360 specifically for the purpose so that they can pray more 132 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:48,960 effectively. How many of you would like to 133 00:07:48,960 --> 00:07:52,800 pray effectively for your loved ones, for your friends, for your 134 00:07:52,800 --> 00:07:57,880 family members, right? He also may give us a, a piece 135 00:07:58,480 --> 00:08:03,480 specifically for the purpose to more effectively minister to 136 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:05,240 someone. You know, have you ever had 137 00:08:05,240 --> 00:08:08,240 anyone while they're, while they're praying for you, you 138 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:11,840 know, have some information about your life while they're 139 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:15,200 praying and you're like, how did they know that, right? 140 00:08:16,200 --> 00:08:17,560 Were they looking on my Facebook? 141 00:08:17,840 --> 00:08:19,800 Were they looking on my, my Instagram? 142 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:22,080 They probably didn't even know your name to be able to look 143 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,080 that up, right? They got that from the Holy 144 00:08:24,080 --> 00:08:27,000 Spirit, right? The Lord is, is giving them some 145 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:31,120 information to help them pray and to help them minister to you 146 00:08:31,600 --> 00:08:36,760 more effectively, right? And there's always a purpose to 147 00:08:36,760 --> 00:08:38,679 the Lord giving someone that information. 148 00:08:40,159 --> 00:08:43,679 And what do we do if we're the ones that receive some 149 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:46,160 information from the Holy Spirit? 150 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:50,360 There's always a purpose whether we're supposed to pray about 151 00:08:50,360 --> 00:08:55,440 that or if we're supposed to share that information. 152 00:08:57,240 --> 00:09:00,880 And with these things, this information isn't for us to 153 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:04,960 dissect. For example, there, there's a 154 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,960 lot of different kinds of prayers in, in Scripture, all 155 00:09:08,960 --> 00:09:11,160 right. And sometimes we can get, we can 156 00:09:11,160 --> 00:09:15,560 get so focused on the things, the word of knowledge, the word 157 00:09:15,560 --> 00:09:20,240 of wisdom, prophecy, whatever it, it may be, you know, Hmm, 158 00:09:20,240 --> 00:09:23,560 are they operating in the word of knowledge, right, or the 159 00:09:23,560 --> 00:09:27,360 discerning of spirits, or is it the word of wisdom or prophecy? 160 00:09:27,640 --> 00:09:31,400 I wonder, Hmm, let me look in Scripture and find, Yep, it's 161 00:09:31,400 --> 00:09:34,680 the word of knowledge, right? We can get so involved in, in 162 00:09:34,680 --> 00:09:38,040 what it is that we kind of miss the, the point of what the the 163 00:09:38,040 --> 00:09:41,080 Holy Spirit is trying to do. All right, So what's going 164 00:09:41,080 --> 00:09:45,280 through this information isn't so we can try to dissect 165 00:09:45,280 --> 00:09:48,480 everything that that's happening in a service or while people are 166 00:09:48,480 --> 00:09:50,800 ministering or in our in our own lives. 167 00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:54,000 It's to it's to help us to bring clarity, all right, so that we 168 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:58,000 can have faith in something, to be able to step out into 169 00:09:58,000 --> 00:09:58,720 something. All right. 170 00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:01,560 But there's all these different kinds of prayer that's in 171 00:10:01,560 --> 00:10:04,640 Scripture as well, you know? But while I'm praying, you know, 172 00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:07,960 I'm not thinking about, I wonder what kind of prayer this is that 173 00:10:07,960 --> 00:10:11,360 I'm praying in right now. Lord, you know, no, I'm just 174 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:12,440 praying. All right? 175 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:17,080 So I'm saying that to encourage you, you know, don't get so 176 00:10:17,080 --> 00:10:20,520 bogged down in the details. That's not what this is about. 177 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,400 This is just so we're clearing up any misunderstandings, right? 178 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:29,120 We want to understand spiritual gifts so that we have the faith 179 00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:32,640 in the ability to be able to walk in these spiritual gifts. 180 00:10:32,800 --> 00:10:35,840 OK. And their purpose is to help 181 00:10:35,880 --> 00:10:39,760 people. The word of knowledge is always 182 00:10:39,760 --> 00:10:44,320 about the past or the present. OK Word of knowledge is never 183 00:10:44,480 --> 00:10:47,720 about the future. It's only about the past, things 184 00:10:47,720 --> 00:10:51,120 that have happened or things that are happening right now. 185 00:10:51,560 --> 00:10:54,840 Let's look at a, a, a good example, probably one of the 186 00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:56,640 clearest examples in, in Scripture. 187 00:10:57,240 --> 00:10:59,280 And this is Jesus operating in this gift. 188 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:01,800 And I don't know if you know the, the story of the woman at 189 00:11:01,800 --> 00:11:05,000 the, the well, you know, Jesus was traveling through Samaria, 190 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:07,520 you know, and he was thirsty and there is a well there and he's 191 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:10,320 like, huh, I'm thirsty. He sent the disciples ahead and 192 00:11:10,320 --> 00:11:12,720 he goes to the well and he, there's a woman there and he's 193 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:15,360 like, Hey, woman, can you give me a drink of water? 194 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:17,600 I'm, I'm thirsty. And he begins to minister to 195 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:19,600 her. All right, And he starts to talk 196 00:11:19,600 --> 00:11:25,720 to her about living water. And in this we get this in John 197 00:11:25,720 --> 00:11:28,680 chapter 4 in verse 15 through 18. 198 00:11:31,480 --> 00:11:35,520 In verse 15 she says, please Sir, the woman said, give me 199 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:39,440 this water and then I'll never be thirsty again and I won't 200 00:11:39,440 --> 00:11:45,560 have to come here to get water. And Jesus responded in verse 16, 201 00:11:45,840 --> 00:11:50,720 go and get your husband. Jesus told her in verse 17, she 202 00:11:50,720 --> 00:11:53,960 says I don't have a husband. She replied and Jesus said, 203 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:55,960 you're right, you don't have a husband. 204 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:01,600 And then verse 18 for you have had five husbands and you aren't 205 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,280 even married to the man that you're living with now. 206 00:12:06,440 --> 00:12:10,920 Wow, that's pretty wild. It's pretty specific as well, 207 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:15,120 isn't it, man? How would you like to have your 208 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:21,800 mail read like that? But the purpose of that wasn't 209 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:26,680 to condemn this woman. It wasn't to put her in her 210 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:30,760 place or position. The purpose of that was to help 211 00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:35,120 her. Because from that, she's like, 212 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:39,720 you're not a man who could just know something like that. 213 00:12:40,560 --> 00:12:42,480 Like, how are you getting this information? 214 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:47,040 And he was able to minister to her and reveal to her that He's 215 00:12:47,040 --> 00:12:50,880 the one that can give this living water. 216 00:12:51,120 --> 00:12:55,680 The Holy Spirit used that information to bring that woman 217 00:12:55,680 --> 00:13:00,000 to a point to receive from Jesus, right? 218 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:03,960 The gifts of the Spirit are to help people. 219 00:13:06,240 --> 00:13:09,240 Jesus didn't learn this information in a conversation 220 00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:12,400 that he had. He didn't guess. 221 00:13:12,920 --> 00:13:17,760 He, supernaturally, by the Holy Spirit, knew these facts about 222 00:13:17,760 --> 00:13:22,080 this woman's life, and the Holy Spirit revealed those facts for 223 00:13:22,080 --> 00:13:26,080 the purpose of breaking through any defense that she had. 224 00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:29,480 Because initially when Jesus was talking with her, her defenses 225 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:33,880 were up and he was not able to have a conversation with her, 226 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,200 Right? She was confrontational with 227 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:37,880 Jesus. Have you ever been 228 00:13:37,880 --> 00:13:41,960 confrontational with Jesus? She's being confrontational with 229 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:46,120 Jesus, and so the Holy Spirit revealed some information to 230 00:13:46,120 --> 00:13:50,640 Jesus that would bypass those defenses to help her. 231 00:13:51,480 --> 00:13:57,360 And the important part, part that Paul is making in One 232 00:13:57,360 --> 00:14:01,320 Corinthians 12/7 is that these spiritual gifts are to help 233 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:05,000 people. They're an act of God's love. 234 00:14:05,520 --> 00:14:11,320 It's saying I see you and I'm here to help, and that's what 235 00:14:11,320 --> 00:14:15,400 God is revealing through these. The second thing I want to talk 236 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:19,000 about the next gift is the word of Wisdom. 237 00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:23,240 And this one gets confused with the the word of knowledge more 238 00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:24,880 than any other gift in this list. 239 00:14:25,320 --> 00:14:26,920 But here's how to distinguish them. 240 00:14:27,200 --> 00:14:30,880 The word of knowledge, as I said, deals with the past and 241 00:14:30,880 --> 00:14:34,000 deals with the present. All right, The word of Wisdom 242 00:14:34,000 --> 00:14:37,320 deals with the future, right? And like I said, don't get 243 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:40,280 caught up on dissecting these. And you know, if someone that 244 00:14:40,320 --> 00:14:43,640 you know is, is ministering or whatever, hmm, are they 245 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:45,400 operating? Don't worry about that. 246 00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:47,640 It's just God speaking, all right, to help people. 247 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:51,200 This is just to help us. All right, So let's look at an 248 00:14:51,200 --> 00:14:53,960 example. In Acts chapter 21, you have a 249 00:14:53,960 --> 00:14:58,520 prophet named Agabus, and he comes down from Judea to share 250 00:14:58,520 --> 00:15:01,880 something that the Lord had given him to the apostle Paul. 251 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:04,720 This is found in Acts chapter 21. 252 00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:07,440 We're going to read verses 10 and 11. 253 00:15:09,680 --> 00:15:13,360 Verse 10 it says several days later a man named Agabus, who 254 00:15:13,360 --> 00:15:16,400 had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea. 255 00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:21,600 And in verse 11, he came over, took Paul's belt and bound his 256 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:24,800 own feet and hands with it, and then said to him, the Holy 257 00:15:24,800 --> 00:15:29,120 Spirit declares, so shall the owner of this belt be bound by 258 00:15:29,120 --> 00:15:33,360 the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem and turned over to the Gentiles? 259 00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:35,480 That's really good news, isn't it? 260 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:38,120 Thanks, Lord. Why you're revealing that to me? 261 00:15:38,520 --> 00:15:40,600 That's information I didn't want to know. 262 00:15:41,840 --> 00:15:45,360 But that isn't just information. It's a specific glimpse into the 263 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:48,120 future revealed by the Holy Spirit. 264 00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,400 And there's a purpose to that, right? 265 00:15:50,400 --> 00:15:53,440 Sometimes the word of knowledge may give direction. 266 00:15:53,680 --> 00:15:56,680 Other times it may give you comfort and may give you 267 00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:58,440 stability. Right? 268 00:15:58,640 --> 00:16:03,000 Agabus here isn't telling Paul something that he already knows. 269 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:06,320 He's telling the apostle Paul something that's coming. 270 00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:10,880 And the purpose is, is to prepare the apostle Paul so that 271 00:16:10,880 --> 00:16:13,440 he'll be prepared and not panicked. 272 00:16:14,080 --> 00:16:18,040 The Holy Spirit is revealing this to bring Paul's stability 273 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:22,920 to a coming situation that was unstable, a trial and 274 00:16:22,920 --> 00:16:25,720 tribulation that the Holy Spirit is warning them. 275 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:28,320 You're going to go to Jerusalem, Paul, and this is what's going 276 00:16:28,320 --> 00:16:31,000 to happen. But don't be afraid, but check 277 00:16:31,000 --> 00:16:36,560 out what happened next in Acts chapter 21 and verse 12, it says 278 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:40,600 and when they when we heard this, we and the local believers 279 00:16:40,600 --> 00:16:44,560 all begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. 280 00:16:45,240 --> 00:16:48,320 They read something into what the Holy Spirit was telling 281 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:50,000 Paul. The Holy Spirit wasn't 282 00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:54,000 necessarily telling Paul don't go to Jerusalem, right? 283 00:16:54,280 --> 00:16:58,000 The Holy Spirit was telling Paul through Agabus something that 284 00:16:58,000 --> 00:17:01,000 was coming. So that as Paul stepped into 285 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,240 that and as he went to Jerusalem, he was prepared for 286 00:17:04,240 --> 00:17:05,440 it. He wasn't going to be taken 287 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,119 surprise that when he was arrested, right, That he's like, 288 00:17:09,119 --> 00:17:11,920 oh, Lord, what are you doing? No, he knew and we he was 289 00:17:11,920 --> 00:17:14,839 prepared for that. But what did the believers there 290 00:17:14,839 --> 00:17:17,440 try to do? They tried to talk the apostle 291 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,520 Paul out of following the Holy Spirit. 292 00:17:21,760 --> 00:17:26,960 They put their interpretation on what they believed the apostle 293 00:17:26,960 --> 00:17:30,200 Paul should be doing. And we have to be careful if we 294 00:17:30,200 --> 00:17:33,760 receive something from the Lord, we don't put our interpretation 295 00:17:33,760 --> 00:17:37,360 on that, right? That's between that individual 296 00:17:37,360 --> 00:17:40,000 and the Holy Spirit. I may have something for, for 297 00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,920 Aiden, all right, but I have to be careful as the one that the 298 00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:46,640 Holy Spirit has given me this, this word of wisdom, this word 299 00:17:46,640 --> 00:17:50,480 of knowledge or this prophecy for Aiden, that I'm not putting 300 00:17:50,480 --> 00:17:54,240 my spin, my interpretation on that because he's not supposed 301 00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:57,080 to follow my interpretation or my opinion. 302 00:17:57,080 --> 00:17:59,320 He's supposed to follow the Holy Spirit. 303 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:04,000 The Holy Spirit is giving something through me, an 304 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:07,600 imperfect vessel, right? It's giving Aiden some 305 00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:11,120 information, and that information is going to align 306 00:18:11,120 --> 00:18:14,040 with his spirit. Because before the Lord tells me 307 00:18:14,040 --> 00:18:16,160 something, he's probably already talking to Aiden. 308 00:18:16,560 --> 00:18:19,720 What I'm telling Aiden is just confirmation about something the 309 00:18:19,720 --> 00:18:22,960 Holy Spirit has already been talking to him about. 310 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:27,400 And if it doesn't confirm, if in his spirit man, right, Not his 311 00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:32,840 head, right, in his spirit man, if that doesn't bear witness, if 312 00:18:32,840 --> 00:18:37,080 he doesn't have a piece about that, then he shouldn't act on 313 00:18:37,080 --> 00:18:40,840 what I've just told him. This is to bring stability to 314 00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:42,960 our life. If it's bringing instability, 315 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,800 all right, I might have missed it, or this imperfect vessel, 316 00:18:46,960 --> 00:18:50,960 you know, might have got my interpretation into that word. 317 00:18:50,960 --> 00:18:53,680 But we have to be careful, all right, that we're not putting 318 00:18:53,680 --> 00:18:58,600 our spin on something or if we hear something that someone else 319 00:18:58,600 --> 00:19:02,080 has given a word of wisdom, a word of knowledge, a prophecy 320 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:04,960 that we're not trying to interpret that ourselves, like 321 00:19:04,960 --> 00:19:08,760 these believers there and say, no, don't do that, right? 322 00:19:08,760 --> 00:19:12,120 Don't get arrested. But the Apostle Paul has to 323 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:15,360 follow where the Holy Spirit is leading him. 324 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:17,440 All right. It's to help you. 325 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:20,680 How many of you have ever gone through a trial or tribulation 326 00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:23,480 and someone has prayed for you or had a word of wisdom or 327 00:19:23,480 --> 00:19:26,480 knowledge or prophecy about something and that helped bring 328 00:19:26,480 --> 00:19:29,720 stability or it helped you make that decision? 329 00:19:30,000 --> 00:19:34,600 I gave the example on the 26th May there about a big decision 330 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,440 that Pastor Amy and myself we're having to go through. 331 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:41,280 We had it on our heart. The Lord began to talk to us 332 00:19:41,280 --> 00:19:44,000 that we're supposed to step down from our positions at her 333 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,240 parents church and that he was going to be moving us to 334 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,080 something else. Well, what is that Lord? 335 00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:51,400 Pastor Amy kept asking, Well, what is it? 336 00:19:51,800 --> 00:19:55,840 I don't know, Holy Spirit hasn't told me that yet and it took 337 00:19:55,840 --> 00:19:57,200 some time. Well, well, guess what? 338 00:19:57,200 --> 00:20:00,320 We, we struggled with that decision for a a while. 339 00:20:00,440 --> 00:20:04,240 We didn't step down for a while because it was a really big 340 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:06,720 decision, right? Stepping down from her like we 341 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:10,600 moved to Ireland to help with Pastor Amy's parents church. 342 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,000 Right, we're going to live and die in Limerick helping in this 343 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:15,520 church. Well, obviously that didn't 344 00:20:15,520 --> 00:20:16,560 happen. I'm still living. 345 00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:19,520 But we really struggled with that decision. 346 00:20:19,800 --> 00:20:23,560 All right, the Holy Spirit's talking to us, but we're like, 347 00:20:23,560 --> 00:20:27,160 well, OK, Lord, but, but, but, but, but, but, but all right. 348 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:30,040 And so we were at a conference and you know, you all know 349 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:32,720 Pastor Sam, who was here for a three-year anniversary. 350 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:36,320 We were at a conference in America and, and he had a word 351 00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:39,360 for the Lord and he didn't really know that it was for us 352 00:20:39,840 --> 00:20:41,680 at the time. I'm sitting on the on the front 353 00:20:41,680 --> 00:20:43,920 row. Pastor Sam is probably like, 354 00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:48,560 like right here from, from me and Pastor Amy, you know, and 355 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:50,920 he's, and he's sharing this word from the Lord. 356 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:54,040 And it was like he was just reading like all the 357 00:20:54,040 --> 00:20:57,680 conversations, the private conversations that we had had 358 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:00,720 together, like he's stating all these different things. 359 00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:03,280 You've been talking and we're like, Oh my gosh. 360 00:21:03,480 --> 00:21:05,240 And I knew it. He's like, I don't know who this 361 00:21:05,240 --> 00:21:06,560 is for. I knew who it was for. 362 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:11,400 It was for it was for Pastor Amy and myself, and I just knew it. 363 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:17,200 It bore witness with my spirit. This is the Lord talking to us. 364 00:21:17,800 --> 00:21:22,640 He's using Pastor Sam to confirm what he had already been talking 365 00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:24,600 to us about. This is a big decision. 366 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:28,280 And one of the things he said was if you don't begin to move, 367 00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:30,880 you're going to miss this window. 368 00:21:31,600 --> 00:21:34,760 And so it took a little bit of time, but we did begin to move 369 00:21:34,760 --> 00:21:37,800 and we wound up moving over, Long story short, moving over 370 00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:40,040 here to this part of the country. 371 00:21:40,200 --> 00:21:43,080 And it's kind of begin the process of starting a church. 372 00:21:43,080 --> 00:21:48,160 And then COVID happened, right? If we didn't begin to move, we 373 00:21:48,160 --> 00:21:51,720 probably wouldn't have, we would have missed that window. 374 00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:56,920 And we needed that confirmation just to help give me a, a, a 375 00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,680 kick in the rear end, get me moving. 376 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:03,200 I move pretty slow. I'm not a fast mover. 377 00:22:03,360 --> 00:22:06,960 When the Lord talks to me, I spend a lot of time processing 378 00:22:06,960 --> 00:22:08,280 that. And the Lord knows that He 379 00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:13,840 started several years before because I move so slow. 380 00:22:13,840 --> 00:22:17,160 But it got to the point where the Lord had to say through 381 00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,680 Pastor Sam, hello McFly. If you don't start moving, 382 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:23,640 you're going to miss the window. You might want to start putting 383 00:22:23,640 --> 00:22:27,040 some steps 1 foot and the other in front of the other, right? 384 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,960 But that was a word from the Lord, but no one else could put 385 00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,520 their interpretation on it. It was important that that one 386 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:37,880 that confirmed in my spirit that this was the Lord talking. 387 00:22:37,880 --> 00:22:40,640 I knew it. I didn't understand it from 388 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:42,720 here. I knew it from here. 389 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:46,520 The Lord was trying to help us, to move us. 390 00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:48,440 And that's what these spiritual gifts are. 391 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:51,800 It's to help people. The next thing I want to talk 392 00:22:51,800 --> 00:22:55,480 about here is prophecy. One thing I want to say too, 393 00:22:55,480 --> 00:23:00,040 before we go into that is that just because someone says I've 394 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:04,040 received something from the Lord for you, that doesn't mean that 395 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:07,640 you move on that one first. You're going to know it inside 396 00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,160 if it is something from the Lord, but pray about it. 397 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,680 You know, Pastor Amy and I, after that word from the Lord, 398 00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:17,040 from Pastor Sam, we didn't like, you know. 399 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:21,000 Hey, Dad, Mom, we quit. We're moving. 400 00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:22,760 I want to move over to. No. 401 00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:24,360 It took some time. It was a process. 402 00:23:24,360 --> 00:23:25,840 We prayed about it. We processed. 403 00:23:25,840 --> 00:23:27,920 We asked the Lord about it. Well, OK, Lord, what do you want 404 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,560 us to do? We know now we need to start 405 00:23:30,560 --> 00:23:31,800 moving. We need to start going a 406 00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:33,320 direction. What is that direction? 407 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:35,080 He didn't even tell us that direction yet. 408 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,360 We knew it was Dublin. We need to start going. 409 00:23:37,440 --> 00:23:40,840 So we started taking all these day trips and, and driving all 410 00:23:40,840 --> 00:23:45,720 over Dublin, the north, the South, the West, not the east, 411 00:23:45,720 --> 00:23:47,280 because we'd have to be in a boat for that. 412 00:23:48,320 --> 00:23:49,960 Well, we were travelling all over, just praying. 413 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:51,440 OK, Lord, where would you have us? 414 00:23:51,720 --> 00:23:53,720 You know, he parked us right here in the middle of clean. 415 00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:56,800 We're like, Lord, why clean? You know, it's a, it's a 416 00:23:56,800 --> 00:23:59,000 village. It's not even in Dublin really. 417 00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:01,360 It's like, well, what are you doing? 418 00:24:01,560 --> 00:24:04,280 But the Lord had a plan, right? You were part of that plan. 419 00:24:04,880 --> 00:24:07,760 Amen. Aren't you glad we listened? 420 00:24:08,360 --> 00:24:10,600 So let's talk about prophecy for a minute here. 421 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:14,920 And I really want to be clear about what this is and and what 422 00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:17,160 it isn't, because prophecy really is one of the most 423 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,760 misunderstood gifts in the charismatic church. 424 00:24:21,040 --> 00:24:24,880 And you have many people on YouTube who are YouTube 425 00:24:24,880 --> 00:24:28,200 prophets, right? But really, the vast majority of 426 00:24:28,280 --> 00:24:30,560 of those people aren't prophets at all. 427 00:24:30,760 --> 00:24:33,120 All right? Like we need to be careful what 428 00:24:33,120 --> 00:24:36,600 we're connecting our, ourselves to. 429 00:24:37,840 --> 00:24:41,160 So it's important to point out that that the ministry gift of 430 00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:45,920 the prophet mentioned in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 11 431 00:24:45,920 --> 00:24:49,800 is, is different than the spiritual gift of prophecy. 432 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:53,240 All right, The ministry gift of the prophet is a ministry 433 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:56,760 position, right? So are the apostle, the 434 00:24:56,760 --> 00:24:59,560 evangelist, the pastor, and the teacher. 435 00:24:59,560 --> 00:25:02,960 Those are ministry positions, ministry offices. 436 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,760 All right, That's different than gifts of the Spirit. 437 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:11,320 Just because someone has prophesied doesn't make them a 438 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:13,320 prophet. Some people, they, they 439 00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:16,560 prophecy, prophecy something. The Lord uses them in a, in a, 440 00:25:16,640 --> 00:25:17,840 in a way. And they're like, all of a 441 00:25:17,840 --> 00:25:20,920 sudden, you know, I'll start calling me Prophet Bradley, 442 00:25:21,440 --> 00:25:22,920 right? You're not a prophet just 443 00:25:22,920 --> 00:25:25,080 because you've shared a prophecy, right? 444 00:25:25,080 --> 00:25:29,080 You're operating maybe in a gift of prophecy, but you're not a 445 00:25:29,080 --> 00:25:32,720 prophet. The prophet itself is an office, 446 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:35,200 all right? It's a ministry position. 447 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:39,080 Does that make sense? The simple gift of prophecy is 448 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:43,080 speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in a known 449 00:25:43,080 --> 00:25:48,040 language for the purpose of building up and encouraging and 450 00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,440 comforting. This is what the Paul said in 451 00:25:51,440 --> 00:25:54,600 One Corinthians chapter 14 and verse three. 452 00:25:54,600 --> 00:25:58,000 He pretty much blinds it out really clearly. 453 00:25:58,840 --> 00:26:01,640 He says 1 Corinthians 14. Three, he says, But one who 454 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:07,920 prophecies strengthens others, encourages them and comforts 455 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:10,000 them, right. Is that what that says? 456 00:26:11,480 --> 00:26:15,600 That simple prophecy? Its purpose is to build people 457 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:17,920 up, all right? To encourage them. 458 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,040 It isn't to direct them. It isn't to tell them you need 459 00:26:21,040 --> 00:26:23,800 to do this, you need to sell all your possessions and blah, blah, 460 00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:26,680 blah, blah, blah. No, it's to build you up, to 461 00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:31,760 strengthen you, to encourage you and to comfort you in many of 462 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:34,640 these spiritual gifts, the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge 463 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:36,920 and, and prophecy. You know, they may, they may 464 00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:39,720 work in conjunction with, with one another. 465 00:26:39,720 --> 00:26:43,160 You know, the Lord may reveal to someone, tell them about 466 00:26:43,160 --> 00:26:46,720 something about your past, right, and then reveal something 467 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:51,440 about your future and then may then comfort and encourage and 468 00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:53,760 build you up with something. You have all three of those 469 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,800 gifts operating at once. That's what I'm saying. 470 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,800 Don't, don't try to dissect things. 471 00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,640 Just follow the Holy Spirit, however he directs you. 472 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:04,280 The apostle Paul gives this direction specifically for 473 00:27:04,280 --> 00:27:08,320 prophecy, and it would be wise to apply this really to all of 474 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:09,920 the the gifts of the Spirit here. 475 00:27:10,760 --> 00:27:14,200 The apostle Paul advises this in One Corinthians 1429. 476 00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:18,560 He says let two or three prophets speak and let the 477 00:27:18,560 --> 00:27:20,840 others judge. You know something about the 478 00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,320 Corinthian church as they were a young church and they didn't 479 00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:28,040 really have a lot of spiritual maturity. 480 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:32,280 And so they had they had a lot of spiritual sensitivity, all 481 00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:35,600 right, but not the maturity. And the church was just chaotic. 482 00:27:35,960 --> 00:27:38,440 Everyone comes wanting to prophet prophecy. 483 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:41,480 Everyone comes wanting to give some word of wisdom. 484 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:44,360 Everyone comes wanting to give some, some, some word of 485 00:27:44,360 --> 00:27:46,560 knowledge. And like you just had people 486 00:27:46,560 --> 00:27:50,200 popping up and shouting and like it was chaotic, right? 487 00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:52,480 Can you imagine if our church like you can't even hear you 488 00:27:52,480 --> 00:27:55,600 ever been in a in a loud room and you have all these people 489 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:58,240 talking and you can hardly even hear the person next to you 490 00:27:58,640 --> 00:27:59,760 talking. You're trying to have a 491 00:27:59,760 --> 00:28:02,080 conversation with them and you're just hearing all this 492 00:28:02,080 --> 00:28:04,600 noise, right? It, it's difficult. 493 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:07,440 Well, imagine that in the, in the church setting, you know, 494 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,080 how's the Holy Spirit supposed to do something when everyone's 495 00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:11,960 yelling up and standing up and shouting. 496 00:28:11,960 --> 00:28:15,640 And, you know, so the Apostle Paul is trying to bring order, 497 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:19,280 trying to bring understanding to spiritual gifts here. 498 00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:22,920 And so he says, let two or three prophets speak and then let the 499 00:28:22,920 --> 00:28:25,400 others judge. And that's the part that I want 500 00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:29,600 to talk about here for a moment is, is that every prophecy, 501 00:28:30,480 --> 00:28:34,000 every word of knowledge, every word of, of wisdom needs to be 502 00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:39,440 weighed against God's word. Not opinion, not thought, not 503 00:28:39,440 --> 00:28:43,800 what this world thinks needs to be weighed against God's word. 504 00:28:44,080 --> 00:28:47,480 Does it first line up with God's word? 505 00:28:47,480 --> 00:28:50,720 Is it something scriptural or is it something unscriptural? 506 00:28:50,720 --> 00:28:54,880 The Holy Spirit isn't ever going to try to lead you, guide you, 507 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:59,800 direct you, encourage you into something that is not in 508 00:28:59,800 --> 00:29:03,080 Scripture. The Holy Spirit is only ever 509 00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:07,640 going to line up with Scripture. If it's not in here, all right, 510 00:29:07,800 --> 00:29:11,520 it's not of God. So this is the first way that we 511 00:29:11,520 --> 00:29:13,720 judge anything, any spiritual gift. 512 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:18,440 The second thing is that it needs to line up with our heart. 513 00:29:18,720 --> 00:29:21,800 All right, our spirit. If it doesn't bear witness with 514 00:29:21,800 --> 00:29:24,720 our spirit, someone's giving us a, a word of knowledge or 515 00:29:24,720 --> 00:29:28,080 something, it doesn't bear with our with our spirit. 516 00:29:28,840 --> 00:29:32,720 Then you just do need to do as I say is just take that and you 517 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:35,960 just put it on the shelf, right? You don't need to do anything 518 00:29:35,960 --> 00:29:38,840 with it right now. Just put it on the shelf. 519 00:29:39,200 --> 00:29:40,720 Thank you for that. God bless you. 520 00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:43,280 I appreciate that. You don't even have to tell the 521 00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:45,280 person. Well, that doesn't bear witness 522 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:49,240 with my spirit, right? No, just thank you. 523 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:52,200 Be gracious, all right? And put that on the shelf. 524 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:56,000 And if it and you pray about it, you go back home and in your 525 00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:57,400 prayer time you just pray about that. 526 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,560 OK, Lord, someone came to me and gave me this word of knowledge, 527 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:04,080 this this word of wisdom or this prophecy, you know, is that was 528 00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:05,760 that of you? Is there something you want me 529 00:30:05,760 --> 00:30:07,640 to do with that? Right. 530 00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:09,040 That's how we need to deal with it. 531 00:30:09,080 --> 00:30:11,280 That's how we judge that. All right. 532 00:30:11,640 --> 00:30:14,240 We first judge it with the word, then we judge it. 533 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:17,600 Does it bear witness? Do we have a piece about it in, 534 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,680 in our spirit? Then if it's something to deal 535 00:30:19,680 --> 00:30:22,760 with the future, you'll know if it comes to pass, all right? 536 00:30:22,800 --> 00:30:26,320 If it, if it's from God, if it comes to pass, you know, years 537 00:30:26,320 --> 00:30:30,080 ago, before Pastor Amy and I moved to Ireland, you know, we 538 00:30:30,080 --> 00:30:32,720 were in three different parts of America travelling, raising 539 00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:34,840 support. So we could move here because at 540 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:39,320 that time we, we couldn't earn any money inside Ireland. 541 00:30:39,320 --> 00:30:42,320 All of our money had to come from outside of Ireland. 542 00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:44,840 So we had to raise support. We're at these different cities 543 00:30:44,840 --> 00:30:47,560 across America, at these different churches, different 544 00:30:47,560 --> 00:30:50,560 people who had absolutely no connection to each other. 545 00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,120 And at three different places, they, they, they gave a word 546 00:30:54,720 --> 00:30:56,480 that was something along this lines. 547 00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:59,520 You know, at the first part, it's going to be hard, you know 548 00:30:59,520 --> 00:31:02,400 it, but after that it's going to be fun, right? 549 00:31:02,400 --> 00:31:04,080 We've joke to each other all the time. 550 00:31:04,080 --> 00:31:08,160 Well, when's it going to be fun? Right, You guys are making it 551 00:31:08,160 --> 00:31:09,080 fun. Thank you. 552 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,880 But it's been a joke of ours, you know, but the point is, you 553 00:31:14,880 --> 00:31:18,360 know that that's something obviously that's just in the in 554 00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:21,360 the future, but at some point it's going to be fun. 555 00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:23,720 You know, for a while things weren't things aren't always 556 00:31:23,720 --> 00:31:25,960 fun, are they? So you just put that on the on 557 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:28,000 the shelf. First you judge it according to 558 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:30,880 Scripture, then you judge it according to whether you have a 559 00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,640 piece about that for bears witness on the inside of you. 560 00:31:34,520 --> 00:31:37,280 All right, and and then, of course, if it's something to do 561 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:40,120 with the future, then you know if it's God because it'll come 562 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,320 to pass. All right, listen, all these all 563 00:31:43,320 --> 00:31:46,400 these things that we're we're talking about and talking about 564 00:31:46,440 --> 00:31:49,680 the gifts of the Spirit. And what these things are is 565 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,840 these things are like a a safety net for us. 566 00:31:53,080 --> 00:31:55,960 All right, and the reason why is the pastor of the church. 567 00:31:55,960 --> 00:31:59,920 I'm talking about spiritual gifts and that so that we don't 568 00:31:59,920 --> 00:32:02,360 have a misunderstanding of those. 569 00:32:02,520 --> 00:32:05,240 You know, we haven't had this happen in our church, all right. 570 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,960 But there have been some other pastors that we know where 571 00:32:07,960 --> 00:32:10,520 people have come who aren't part of the church that come and they 572 00:32:10,520 --> 00:32:13,440 just start giving everyone a word from the Lord, you know, 573 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,240 prophesying over people and, and telling them God said such and 574 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:19,280 such and such and such. Well, they're not even part of 575 00:32:19,280 --> 00:32:21,200 that. That church, you know, the Holy 576 00:32:21,200 --> 00:32:23,560 Spirit isn't going to do that, all right? 577 00:32:24,080 --> 00:32:27,040 Unless Pastor Amy and Brad have asked someone say like Pastor 578 00:32:27,040 --> 00:32:30,440 Eddie or someone else to come here to minister in the church. 579 00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:33,400 Pastor, the Holy Spirit isn't going to violate the authority 580 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,200 of this church, right? He's not going to have someone 581 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:38,800 come in and and just start giving a word to everybody who's 582 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:42,960 not connected to us at all. So as a as a, as a pastor, I 583 00:32:42,960 --> 00:32:46,640 want us as a church, as a church family, to have some 584 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:50,480 understanding about how spiritual gifts work. 585 00:32:50,680 --> 00:32:51,840 All right, Because that's important. 586 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:57,440 OK, so I want to close with this real quickly about walking in 587 00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:01,000 spiritual gifts. It's really quick in One 588 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:05,200 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 11, and really, really quick 589 00:33:05,200 --> 00:33:08,840 'cause I'm just hot. It's warm up here. 1 Corinthians 590 00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,160 chapter 12 and verse 11, the apostle Paul says, and it is one 591 00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:14,480 and only. It is the one and only Spirit 592 00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:19,560 who distributes these gifts. He alone decides which gift each 593 00:33:19,560 --> 00:33:24,400 person, each person should have. The Holy Spirit, the apostle 594 00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,720 Paul says, who decides that? You're not the one that gets to 595 00:33:27,720 --> 00:33:30,600 determine. All right, I'm going to walk in 596 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:35,360 the Word of Wisdom today. I'm going to prophecy today. 597 00:33:35,640 --> 00:33:39,600 I'm going to walk in special faith or gifts of healings or 598 00:33:40,520 --> 00:33:44,920 no, it's the Holy Spirit who decides those things. 599 00:33:44,920 --> 00:33:47,880 This isn't like a buffet where, you know, I can go to, you know, 600 00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:52,000 what's that restaurant Cosmo, right at the Liffey Valley Mall, 601 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:54,200 You know, you can go up there. What is that like on the 3rd 602 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:56,360 floor? And it's a lot of Asian cuisine 603 00:33:56,360 --> 00:33:58,400 and different things. It's pretty good, you know, But 604 00:33:58,400 --> 00:34:01,040 you can go and you can choose what it is you want to eat. 605 00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:02,600 You know, you walk up with a plate. 606 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,320 You know, if you're like me, you walk up, you know, two or three 607 00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,679 times, maybe 4 times, you know, fill up your fill up your plate 608 00:34:08,679 --> 00:34:10,159 and you know, this is all you can eat, right? 609 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:11,480 I'm going to get my money's worth. 610 00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:13,760 Like they don't mind. No one says a thing, right? 611 00:34:13,760 --> 00:34:16,440 I can go up there four or five times, fill up my plate. 612 00:34:16,440 --> 00:34:19,080 I still eat like I'm a teenager. I don't know what's wrong with 613 00:34:19,080 --> 00:34:22,360 me, right? But, but so, you know, the gifts 614 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:24,800 of the Spirit, it isn't like that, all right? 615 00:34:24,960 --> 00:34:29,159 He's the one that determines what gift you operate in. 616 00:34:30,239 --> 00:34:33,280 That's an important part that we need to understand, right? 617 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:39,199 He says he alone, the Holy Spirit decides which gift each 618 00:34:39,199 --> 00:34:42,760 person should have. So how do we recognize the Holy 619 00:34:42,760 --> 00:34:44,880 Spirit's leading with these gifts? 620 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:47,280 That's probably an important discussion, isn't it? 621 00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:51,480 Firstly, the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit. 622 00:34:52,080 --> 00:34:55,679 The enemy speaks to your mind. Sometimes we speak to our mind 623 00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:58,800 as well, but the Holy Spirit speaks to your spirit. 624 00:34:59,160 --> 00:35:01,560 If you're getting something, you, you think, is this a word 625 00:35:01,560 --> 00:35:03,040 of wisdom and knowledge, prophecy? 626 00:35:03,040 --> 00:35:05,400 What is this right? And it's coming through here. 627 00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:08,040 Let me just tell you, that's probably not the Holy Spirit. 628 00:35:08,040 --> 00:35:10,400 Now let me know, let me take probably out there. 629 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,000 Let me tell you, it's not the Holy Spirit, right? 630 00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:15,280 The Holy Spirit doesn't speak to you through your mind. 631 00:35:15,280 --> 00:35:17,360 He speaks to you through your spirit. 632 00:35:17,960 --> 00:35:22,440 That's a really easy way to tell if something is from God or 633 00:35:22,440 --> 00:35:25,640 whether it's from the enemy, right, Because the enemy talks 634 00:35:25,640 --> 00:35:27,680 to you too, doesn't he? Right. 635 00:35:27,840 --> 00:35:30,520 You ever had any crazy thoughts? I have. 636 00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:36,040 Don't act so spiritual, right? God speaks to your spirit. 637 00:35:36,320 --> 00:35:38,360 So what does this practically look like? 638 00:35:38,760 --> 00:35:40,920 It might just be like an impression. 639 00:35:40,920 --> 00:35:43,920 You just feel something, an impression in your spirit. 640 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:48,400 It might be an, an inspiration with some words, perhaps it may 641 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,320 feel like a bubbling up in your spirit. 642 00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:54,160 You know, like you, you feel like I can, I can hardly even 643 00:35:54,160 --> 00:35:56,760 contain this. The Holy Spirit's telling me, 644 00:35:56,800 --> 00:35:59,000 telling me something. And what are you supposed to do 645 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,960 with that? And, and it may happen while 646 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:04,200 you're praying. It may happen while you're 647 00:36:04,200 --> 00:36:06,680 worshiping a lot of times, you know, while we're worshiping 648 00:36:06,680 --> 00:36:09,360 here on, on Sunday morning, the Lord's speaking to me all the 649 00:36:09,360 --> 00:36:11,200 time. The Lord speaks to me while I'm 650 00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:14,200 worshiping all the time. You know, sometimes the Lord may 651 00:36:14,200 --> 00:36:16,920 speak to different people differently, all right? 652 00:36:17,080 --> 00:36:18,720 He may speak to you while you're praying. 653 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,360 He may speak to you while you're doing dishes or laundry or while 654 00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:23,920 you're at work or while you're driving. 655 00:36:23,920 --> 00:36:27,600 The Lord speaks to me a lot while I'm worshipping, OK? 656 00:36:28,200 --> 00:36:30,560 But you also might be doing absolutely nothing. 657 00:36:30,560 --> 00:36:35,280 You might be on the bus, all right, not even thinking about 658 00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,440 anything religious or whatever. You may be thinking, what should 659 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:41,160 I do after work today, right? And all of a sudden, you just 660 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:43,960 feel something inside the Lord telling you something. 661 00:36:44,600 --> 00:36:45,760 All right. He may give you a word of 662 00:36:45,760 --> 00:36:48,080 knowledge about the past or present. 663 00:36:48,080 --> 00:36:50,920 He may give you a word of wisdom about the future. 664 00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,480 He may give you a a prophecy to strengthen or comfort someone. 665 00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:59,840 And if you believe you that you've received something from 666 00:36:59,840 --> 00:37:04,560 the Holy Spirit, you should first ask him what you should do 667 00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,600 with that. Don't ever act on it right away 668 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:09,560 unless the Holy Spirit tells you. 669 00:37:09,560 --> 00:37:14,080 I need you to act on this right now, you know, otherwise ask the 670 00:37:14,080 --> 00:37:16,400 Holy Spirit what he wants you to do with that. 671 00:37:16,400 --> 00:37:20,920 Should I pray about this Lord? Are you telling me this for me 672 00:37:20,920 --> 00:37:26,120 to pray for someone or are you telling me this information that 673 00:37:26,120 --> 00:37:29,920 I'm supposed to share this with someone? 674 00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:33,240 So let's talk about some practical steps to something 675 00:37:33,240 --> 00:37:36,960 that's very spiritual. I have just have a couple things 676 00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:40,680 here really quick is believe that God has a spiritual gift 677 00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,760 for you. You know, these spiritual gifts 678 00:37:44,040 --> 00:37:46,560 aren't reserved for full time ministers. 679 00:37:46,920 --> 00:37:50,000 They're reserved for the church, for individuals, because we all 680 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:54,280 have a ministry, don't we? I can't go and talk to everyone 681 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:56,560 that you know, that'd be impossible, right? 682 00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,840 I don't know all the people that you know, God has a ministry for 683 00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:02,520 you. And these spiritual gifts aren't 684 00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:06,360 just for us here in the church. It's for it's to help us out 685 00:38:06,360 --> 00:38:09,840 there outside of these walls to be able to help people just like 686 00:38:09,840 --> 00:38:12,280 Jesus with that woman at the well, right? 687 00:38:12,280 --> 00:38:14,280 He wasn't in the temple. He wasn't in the synagogue. 688 00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:17,320 He was at a well getting a drink of water, right? 689 00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,800 So believe that God has has a gift for you and the Holy Spirit 690 00:38:22,800 --> 00:38:25,160 distributes these each as he wills. 691 00:38:25,520 --> 00:38:29,600 The next thing is to create space to hear right? 692 00:38:29,600 --> 00:38:33,120 A lot of us may not have ever walked in in gifts, a gift of 693 00:38:33,120 --> 00:38:35,800 the Spirit before. Some of us might not have ever 694 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:37,880 even heard of gifts of the Spirit. 695 00:38:37,880 --> 00:38:41,160 Wow, Pastor Brad, I've, I've read these chapters before, but 696 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,040 I never really thought about gifts of the spirit in in my 697 00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:46,560 life, right? But the Holy Spirit wants you to 698 00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,720 walk in these things. So createspace to hear these 699 00:38:49,720 --> 00:38:53,680 gifts operate as you are yielded to the Holy Spirit. 700 00:38:54,000 --> 00:38:57,720 Spend some time in prayer and in the word and learn to pay 701 00:38:57,720 --> 00:39:01,960 attention to those impressions of the Spirit in your heart. 702 00:39:02,120 --> 00:39:04,440 All right, you just, you just start with small things. 703 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,640 The Holy Spirit begins to reveal things to you, not necessarily 704 00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,120 for you to go to act on those things. 705 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:13,640 It's just so that you begin to recognize. 706 00:39:14,120 --> 00:39:17,600 I recognize that I recognize the voice of the Spirit, right? 707 00:39:17,600 --> 00:39:19,040 That's that's an important thing. 708 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,480 All right. The next thing is test what you 709 00:39:21,480 --> 00:39:24,040 receive. Don't run with every impression 710 00:39:24,240 --> 00:39:27,200 that you get. As you're growing, the Lord may 711 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:30,520 reveal things to you as you're learning to hear his voice. 712 00:39:31,120 --> 00:39:34,720 Those things aren't necessarily for you to run with, all right, 713 00:39:34,720 --> 00:39:38,800 but to learn from. Test those things against the 714 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:43,120 word and if needed, all right, bring those to a a trusted 715 00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:47,200 member of of leadership, Pastor Amy, myself or anyone else in in 716 00:39:47,200 --> 00:39:49,920 the church who's who's mature and can help you with those 717 00:39:49,920 --> 00:39:52,560 things. All right, and that helps bring 718 00:39:52,560 --> 00:39:55,800 stability. And then the next thing is be 719 00:39:55,800 --> 00:39:58,720 humble. The Holy Spirit wants to work 720 00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:03,440 through every believer, and it's an amazing and thrilling thing 721 00:40:03,440 --> 00:40:07,080 to hear the voice of the Lord and we're all special. 722 00:40:07,560 --> 00:40:10,760 All right, but none of us are a special case. 723 00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:12,920 That's because you hear from the Lord. 724 00:40:12,920 --> 00:40:16,120 Don't let that go to your head, all right, remain humble. 725 00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:19,880 You know, when we're humble, the Bible says humble yourself in 726 00:40:19,880 --> 00:40:23,200 the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. 727 00:40:23,560 --> 00:40:27,600 A humble heart is important when you're ministering to people, 728 00:40:28,120 --> 00:40:31,840 you know, people that start to get a big head because the Lord 729 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:37,120 starts to use them is a a dangerous minefield that the 730 00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:42,440 enemy begins to use in your life to try to trip you up and to try 731 00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,400 to trip other people up. So stay humble. 732 00:40:45,880 --> 00:40:51,960 Recognize that how amazing it is for God to use Someone Like You. 733 00:40:53,200 --> 00:40:56,560 You know, God likes to use the unlikely to do the unusual 734 00:40:56,560 --> 00:41:01,320 things, the amazing things. We are all special, right? 735 00:41:01,560 --> 00:41:04,920 But we're not a special case. Does that make sense? 736 00:41:05,600 --> 00:41:07,280 All right, so I'm going to close with this. 737 00:41:07,760 --> 00:41:11,560 The church is not a performance hall, OK? 738 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:15,880 These gifts aren't to show how spiritual we are, right? 739 00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,000 The church is a place where many people come for help. 740 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,000 They need something from the Lord. 741 00:41:21,320 --> 00:41:23,880 And the really cool thing is that God has placed these 742 00:41:23,880 --> 00:41:28,280 ministry gifts within the church for us to help people. 743 00:41:28,440 --> 00:41:32,240 All right, I'm happy to pray for anyone who needs prayer, but it 744 00:41:32,240 --> 00:41:36,080 is such a blessing to me as the the pastor to see people in our 745 00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:40,360 church praying for one another, encouraging one another, 746 00:41:40,360 --> 00:41:43,920 building up one another, or someone coming to me with a 747 00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:47,400 story of how the Lord used them to bless someone outside of this 748 00:41:47,640 --> 00:41:49,640 church. All right, it's an amazing 749 00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:51,880 thing. So my question to you this 750 00:41:51,880 --> 00:41:57,520 morning is, are you willing to allow the Holy Spirit to speak 751 00:41:57,520 --> 00:42:03,720 through you to help others? It's a big step, all right, but 752 00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:08,520 there is nothing more thrilling than for God to be able to use 753 00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:13,280 us, to speak through us, to help someone who needs help. 754 00:42:13,800 --> 00:42:18,000 Amen. Let's all close our eyes and bow 755 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:22,520 our heads, and I just want us to pray this together. 756 00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:27,680 Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for your gift of the Holy 757 00:42:27,680 --> 00:42:32,880 Spirit. I believe that you speak through 758 00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:37,760 your church. I believe that you speak through 759 00:42:37,760 --> 00:42:44,440 me to help others. I open my heart to every gift 760 00:42:44,440 --> 00:42:49,560 you have for me. Help me be sensitive to Your 761 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:55,000 Spirit and use me to build up the people around me. 762 00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:03,480 I believe your word. Can I receive your gifts in 763 00:43:03,720 --> 00:43:06,560 Jesus name? Amen. 764 00:43:09,120 --> 00:43:12,520 Thank you for listening to the Triumph Church podcast this 765 00:43:12,520 --> 00:43:15,080 week. If it was a blessing to you, 766 00:43:15,360 --> 00:43:20,000 share it with someone you know. For more information on Triumph 767 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:25,920 Church, you can visit us at www.triumphchurch.ie.