Welcome to the Quality Christian Living Podcast.
I am your host, David Friend. Today's podcast
is entitled, Holy Spirit Gifts. The source and
purpose of the gifts of the Holy Spirit will
be covered. The gifts of the Holy Spirit were
ordained by God, therefore God is our source.
The purposes of the Holy Spirit are unlimited
and the Gifts that I'm talking about will bring
power that we cannot comprehend. This is an introduction
to the nine power gifts of the Holy Spirit. Heavenly
Father, I thank you once again for who you are.
I pray now that you would help us in this podcast,
that you would bless it, that you would anoint
it, and that you would take complete control
of it. Holy Spirit, I yield totally to you and
commit to you. I ask you to touch those who are
listening in, that their hearts and their minds
will be opened to receive what you have. Lord,
in your word, and Father, in this podcast. Once
again, I thank you for this opportunity. I pray
blessings will come and we'll give you praise
and honor for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
The scriptures tell us that God is the source
of every gift or promise that Christians can
ever receive. Matter of fact, every perfect and
precious gift that we receive comes from the
Father. In James chapter 1 verse 17, the New
International Version says this, every good and
perfect gift is from above. In 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse 4, in the New Living Translation,
it says, there are different kinds of spiritual
gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them
all. And then in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and
verse 11 it tells us that the only the Holy Spirit
distributes all the gifts of the Spirit. What
that means is that the only way that we can receive
these spiritual gifts is when the Holy Spirit
decides how to distribute them and who's going
to receive which gifts and it's his complete
control and that's what the Word of God tells
us and that's what Paul is teaching those in
the Church of Corinth because they were having
a lot of confusion about the gifts. They didn't
understand what was taking place and so he stepped
in there to teach them and and help them and
give them great instruction. So I would certainly
encourage you to get the Word of God out and
read 1 Corinthians chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter
14. I've mentioned it in a prior podcast, but
it's so important that we read what the Word
of God has to say and what Paul said, because
remember his words were inspired by the Holy
Spirit and he's talking because of the Holy Spirit
speaking through him. He's teaching and edifying
us to understand how the gifts of the Spirit
operate in every Christian who desires to have
them. Now we know that the source of the nine
power gifts and all of the gifts from the Holy
Spirit, the source is God. And the Holy Spirit
is the one that delivers them to us. Here are
the nine power gifts. But first, why are they
called power gifts? Well, they are supernatural.
They are God's gifts. They are great gifts and
they're designed to help believers and have believers
be able to help others. These gifts help us to
receive the answers for difficult needs or impossible
circumstances. They are given to increase our
faith. I'm not sure a lot of people think about
the Holy Spirit that way, that it's going to
be a way to increase our faith and our trust
in God. It's going to be a blessing to give us
more confidence in God's word. It's going to
help us in every aspect of our life. And if we're
searching for the gifts and we desire to operate
in the gifts then remember they will build our
faith as the Holy Spirit disperses them out to
each and every one of us the gifts that he chooses
that will cause an increase in our trust our
faith and that knowing that God is able to do
anything in this life and that nothing is impossible
with our God now first allow me to quickly list
the nine power gifts wisdom knowledge faith healing
miracles prophecy discernment Between good and
evil spirits and there's then tongues and interpretation
of tongues now all of these gifts are supernatural
They do not come by just reading books or listening
to teaching on them and instructions on how to
receive them they come when we yield and submit
and surrender our will and our mind and our thoughts
to the Holy Spirit so the Holy Spirit then is
free to come in and Tribute the gifts that he
desires now although these tools are beneficial
to us It is the Holy Spirit at his job is to
distribute them the type of the gift and to those
who receive the gifts. Now see, I know I'm talking
a little more about that than I probably would,
but I think it's important that we understand
that because sometimes I've heard teaching from
people that just say, well, I'm going to get
this gift and I'm going to get that gift and
I prayed with this guy and he gave me this and
he gave me that. No, that is not scripturally
sound. The Word of God tells us very clearly
that it's only the Holy Spirit who distributes
the gifts for those that he chooses and the gifts
that he chooses to use. All of these gifts have
a purpose. Now let's stop for for a second. Every
single gift has a purpose. It's not to make us
just feel better. It's not to let us tell other
people, oh by the way I've got the gift of tongues
and I've got the gift of interpretation or I've
got the gift of prophecy. They're wonderful and
that's glorious, but it's not for us to boast.
It's not for us to tell other people and to try
and get other people to think that maybe we have
something more important than they have. No,
these gifts are given by the Holy Spirit to people
who yield to the power of God and put the Holy
Spirit first in their walk. They are not gifts
for us to use any way that we choose or any way
that we desire. The Holy Spirit tells us how
they should be used and what direction they should
be used. And once again, I need to emphasize
that if you have not read 1 Corinthians chapter
12, chapter 13, and chapter 14 in the New Living
International or in NIV, whichever translation
you like, I think if you haven't read that yet,
you need to read that and read it over and over
again and listen to what Paul says about how
the gifts should be used and in what way they're
right and in what way they're not being used
properly. And so it's important that we understand
that. So I want to make sure that that's solid
and we need to understand that before we can
continue on this particular podcast on the nine.
power, gifts of the Holy Spirit. Here's a great
scripture that Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter
12 and verse number 7. He says, the manifestation
of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit
of all. So when the Holy Spirit comes forward
in a church service or in a Bible study or just
between a husband and wife or just simply you
seeking God's presence and his guidance and direction
and he speaks to you through the Spirit of his
Spirit, it's given for the benefit of the profit
of all Christians, and it's not to be used for
one person for some kind of special interest
or some special purpose. Now after this podcast,
I'm going to cover each gift in greater detail,
but I want to take a little time now, kind of
introduce all of the gifts and talk about just
some general statements I think that we're going
to learn as we go through this continued teaching
on this series on the Holy Spirit. So let's get
into them right now. Let me just cover the nine
gifts. As we move through them, I'll ask the
Holy Spirit to guide and direct me as to how
much I say, or whether I go quickly, or whether
he wants me to have something special for each
and every one of you. The first gift listed in
the Word of God is wisdom. That's the ability
to understand and clarify for others what God's
Word says, what is false or what is true in spiritual...
Teaching it's it's wonderful to have someone
with the gift of wisdom and wisdom in your prayer
group or in your obviously in your church We
should have people with that gift because they
are placed there to help us to Bless us to profit
all of us is what that's other scripture said
first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 7 So we need
to understand that wisdom is gives us the ability.
It's not a nothing that we've learned in school
It's not from a book that we've read although
those things can be good They can be good tools
and things that help us, but it's the ability
All right, we're gonna move on now. The next
gift is known as knowledge, and that means to
know something we do not know based on our knowledge,
or based on our teaching, or based on our education.
Now, those are all good things, but our education
is not always... you know, centered on the spiritual
things. There's things that we have to learn
in school that don't have a whole lot of spiritual
content to them. And those are the things that
will not give us spiritual knowledge or give
us spiritual wisdom. So we've got to understand
the difference between the two. You know, some
people will come up to me and say, oh, that guy
is really smart. He's really bright. I bet you
he's really understand the Word of the God and
he can do this and do that. And that's not necessarily
true. I've seen people with extremely low education.
I mean, they didn't have a degree. Many of them
didn't even go to high school. but they are so
learned in the Word of God and they have received
an anointing of wisdom and knowledge through
the gifts of the Spirit to be able to teach on
any topic, any subject you can even imagine.
So I think that's something we need to remember
that it's not by might or not by power but by
Spirit says the Lord. That's what the Word of
God tells us. Now in 1 Corinthians chapter 2
and verse 10 it says this in the New Living Translation,
His Spirit searches out everything. and shows
us God's deep secrets. Now, that's knowledge.
That is the depth of spiritual knowledge. Let's
read that scripture again, just very carefully,
and I'll think about it. His spirit searches
out everything. That means he knows everything.
And if he's ever asked a question, he's got the
answer to all of it. He searches out everything
and shows us God's deep secrets, the deep things
of God. You know, there's been times that I've
been praying and seeking the Lord and the Holy
Spirit moves upon me and I can just feel it.
power of God operating and the Lord is telling
me to do this or go in this direction and it
usually is something to help somebody that's
in need in their home or need in their marriage
or someone that just needs a phone call. That's
something that the Holy Spirit gives us and those
are things where God understands what the need
is. He also understands what the solution to
that need is and then he speaks to us through
the Spirit of God that lives and dwells inside
of us to give us the gifts of wisdom and knowledge.
to be a benefit to the church. Now our lives
are going to be blessed. I'm not saying that
these things don't bless us. You know, I really
believe the gifts of the Spirit are kind of like
a large piece of conduit where we are open. We're
the conduit. And the Holy Spirit comes in with
a blessing. He's got wisdom. He's got knowledge.
He's got the deep things of God. He's got all
these things for us. He wants to help us to understand
what the Word of God says. He wants to help us
to understand who's a false teacher and who is
a true teacher, what true spiritual truth is
all about and all that's for us and he pours
it into a conduit that we receive and that conduit
goes through us and blesses us and edifies us
and helps us and draws us closer to God and builds
our faith and does so much for us and then like
a conduit it goes out through us and matter of
fact there's so much that comes to us that it
flows from us to other people you know we are
blessed to profit others also You know, the same
thing applies to our finances. Now, I know this
is not a lesson or a podcast on finances, but
when we're blessed, God intends it to be a blessing
for us, but he also intends it to be a blessing
for others. We're to use what we have to take
care of what we need, and he'll give us an abundance
of blessings, whether it be financial, whether
it be spiritual, whether it be health, to reach
out and bless someone else. That's how the Holy
Spirit operates. We'll get into these too in
detail in upcoming podcasts, but I just think
it's important to and understand that this kind
of knowledge and this kind of faith is truly
spiritual, supernatural spiritual. Okay, now
the next one that's listed here is faith, wisdom,
knowledge, then faith. It says it's the gift,
this is what I've written down. The gift of faith
is having trust in God for something you cannot
accomplish. It's having faith for something that
you can't see. It's calling for something that's
not as though that it is. And yet the Bible tells
us that faith is substance. That means you can
reach out and grab a hold of it. It's evidence.
It means it's proof that something has happened.
Faith is something that you believe or you don't
believe. Now, some people come to me and they
say, Pastor, I need more help with my faith.
I'm struggling with my faith. And I like to stop
them and say, no, you have faith. They'll say,
I don't have any faith, and it's so weak. And
I'm going to say, no, no, no, that's not true.
God has given all of us a measure of faith. And
you're a Christian. You follow Jesus Christ as
your Lord and Savior because of the faith that
you had to believe with the Holy Spirit. told
you to draw you into a relationship with Jesus
Christ. So most of us have greater faith than
what we imagine is possible, and we need to understand
that the Holy Spirit is there to give us greater
faith. The gift of faith, in my words, is having
trust in God for something you cannot accomplish
on your own. All right, let's go to the next
one now. Healing. Now this gift is the anointing
of the Holy Spirit to believers, and it's to
help them to know and understand that healing
is about to take place. And that healing will
be for both physical and emotional needs. You
know, there have been times that I've prayed
for people that I knew instantly that they were
healed. Now, as a new Christian, I wouldn't say
anything. I'd kind of hope they understood and
I wouldn't say anything. But then as I tried
to get closer to the Lord, I started reading
Paul's teachings. I discovered that when the
Holy Spirit moves upon me and I pray for someone
and he shows me that the gift of healing that
he's placed in me is being... poured out upon
these people, and these people are receiving
their healing, and I can remember a lady once
that had a terrible problem, a diabetic problem,
and she came up to me and she said, I'm just
suffering with this, it's getting worse. I said,
why don't we just believe that God will heal
it? And so we prayed, and at the end of that,
the Holy Spirit impressed upon me, tell her that
she's healed, go to the doctor, get it confirmed,
but she has been healed. The power of the Lord
Jesus Christ came through the Holy Spirit to
me, and the Holy Spirit then gave me... that
opportunity to pray for healing for this person.
She went to the doctor. She came back about a
week later and told me that she was completely
healed and restored. Now to God be the glory.
To God receive all that honor and praise for
what he did in that situation. There'll be a
whole lot more in healing in the upcoming podcast.
The next nine power gifts of the nine power gifts
is miracles. This is a gift that is far beyond
human understanding. It's It's way beyond our
understanding. Science cannot explain it. Science
has no way to understand it because the scientist
is looking at what they feel they understand
and what they've created. They're not leaning
towards what God says that can take place in
people's lives. And so it's a gift that is far
beyond what we've ever learned or we've ever
experienced in our experiences, or in our education,
or wherever it might be. And here's a scripture
I think that kind of helps us understand miracles.
It's found in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20.
It says, Now to him who is able to do exceedingly
abundantly above all that we ask or think. You
see, to him be the glory. Because God is able
to do in us more than we can imagine. Exceedingly
abundantly above. all that we can ask or even
think about. Now, I've heard people preach about
this and say, I'm a big thinker, I think big.
Well, it doesn't matter how big you think God's
bigger. It doesn't matter what we have in our
background and all that, God is able to do exceedingly
abundantly more than all of that. And that's
called a miracle. I just believe that. I had
my kidneys healed when I was 25 years of age.
It was a miracle. The doctor told me, you've
only got a short time to live. Your kidneys are
failing. And this was many, many, many years
ago when kidney transplants were brand new. And
he said, you would never survive one. You have
a terrible blood condition. You just would not
survive the surgery. And so he said, just go
home, take care of your situations, and just
go from there. Well, I got home, started reading
the Bible about healings and miracles and the
gifts of the spirit. And my wife and I I prayed
and we started believing that God was gonna give
me that miracle and heal my kidneys. And so about
six months later, I was supposed to go back to
the doctor. So I went to see him. He looked at
me and he said, I just ran all your tests and
what have you been doing? And I said, well, we've
been praying, trusting God and drinking a lot
of water. He said, well, drinking a lot of water
is great. He said, just praying, that's all else
you've done? We said, well, that seems to be
all we've needed, right? You just said, I'm fine.
He says, you are completely healed. totally restored.
Your kidneys are perfectly normal. You don't
need any surgery. You don't need any treatments.
That was a miracle that came into my life. I
was a brand new Christian, 25 years of age, and
the Holy Spirit moved in such a powerful way
that He gave me that gift to believe for my miracle.
And that was a gift that I could extend to myself.
Some people say, well, isn't that kind of selfish?
No, it's not. Matter of fact, a lot of people
don't realize that when we operate on the gifts
of the Spirit, it's to bless us. And so therefore,
we can be blessed when we experience the gifts
of wisdom knowledge faith healing and miracles
and they do bless us and we should receive those
and that's not person that's not selfish that's
not self -centered that's just operating how
the Holy Spirit wants to operate in our lives
okay here's another one of the gifts prophecy
in first Corinthians chapter 14 verse 39 it tells
us about the word this word prophecy comes from
God and it's to build up others. It has many
uses and you know I can't really spend a lot
of time on it now because it just deserves just
complete attention because prophecy is so powerful.
as one of the nine power gifts of the Holy Spirit
and yet there are times when it's not really
understood and there's people that think that
they're a prophet and maybe they're not. They
need to get guidance or maybe they are a prophet
and they don't understand it and they're operating
below what God intended for them. So if that's
something you feel that you would like to see
in your life then you need to talk to your pastor,
to other people who understand the gifts of the
Spirit and tune into our podcast and listen because
we will cover in detail the gift of Here's another
one, another one of the gifts of the spirit.
Nine power gifts. Discernment of various spirits.
Now this is not human intellect or suspicions.
It is to help believers identify various spirits.
Now I made a comment earlier in this that the
discernment of the various spirits is those of
good spirits and bad spirits and really that's
how it operates. I mean I have had many occasions
where someone's walked up to me and I can just
sense their spirit is so powerful and just so
strong and they were in agreement on something
and I can also tell you when people come up to
me and I think they're confused and they've been
hearing some teaching that wasn't necessarily
strong or possibly they were cooperating, you
know, and not understanding what they're listening
to and allowing other spiritual things to influence
them. That's very dangerous. And I've had people
that I've had to pray for and tell them that
you have a spirit of this or a spirit of that
and that's the Holy Spirit giving me that so
that I can share that with them so that they
can grow and draw closer to God and benefit and
profit from the spiritual gift of discernment
of various spirits. An example, let me give you
an example of that. Spirit speaks to us with
a warning or to be cautious about something.
Have you ever go out to buy something like maybe
a purchase a car or maybe in something not quite
as big maybe some clothes or something and as
you make the purchase on a credit card or you're
going to use the last cash that you've got you
have that still quiet voice inside of you that
tells you no not now. That's the Holy Spirit
telling you and directing you and telling you
not to make a purchase that it's not going to
be good for you. And a lot of times people say,
well, you know, how come God doesn't bless me
with this or bless me with that? Well, God knows
better about what will bless us and what will
not bless us. And the Holy Spirit is inside of
us to help us to make these decisions. And we
need to rely upon him to help us to have discernment
of various spirits. Now we'll cover this in depth
in an upcoming podcast. Here's the next power
gift of the Holy Spirit, and that's tongues.
And it's basically to speak, to pray, to even
sing in a language unknown the one with the gift.
So we'll talk a lot about that and it's something
that I don't take very lightly but one that is
crucial to my walk with God and our walk with
God. And finally the interpretation of tongues.
It's for someone to interpret an unknown tongue.
This is one of the nine power gifts that's so
crucial for the church to operate the way God
intended to operate with the Holy Spirit involved
in activities, services, Bible studies, whatever
it might be. But we need to have them all come
together. So all these we'll be studying. I won't
repeat all of them because that would be kind
of redundant, but I just want us to think about
what areas that we're focused on and then be
sure and listen in to all of these. The Holy
Spirit is still operating through followers of
Jesus Christ to perform these gifts today. I
know I've heard people who teach that know that
past when Jesus went to heaven, but that's just
not true. The bird of God tells me that God is
going to operate this way until Jesus comes back
and claims his church. And even then there's
going to be even greater things that take place.
So let's just give all the God the glory for
it and let's desire to operate the way the gifts
want us to operate and to receive them. and have
a willing heart and an open heart to receive
what the Holy Spirit wants to do in and through
us. So let me just pray for you. I'm sure there's
some that would like to have a prayer to have
prayer over these particular areas. Father, I
know there's people who've listening today that
they're really desiring to get the gift of prophecy
or tongues interpretation or knowledge or healing
or whatever it might be, Father. But I just pray,
Lord, that you would bless them and help them
to focus on what the Holy Spirit wants to do
and to yield to the Holy Spirit and to ask him
to do what he desires to do because that's what
will be best for each and every one of us. I
pray blessing upon those who are desiring to
pray in their heavenly prayer language and that
would expand their time for prayer and expand
their, quite frankly, their closeness to the
Lord. I pray blessing to be upon him and I pray
that you would pour out your spirit, Father,
on all flesh, Lord. And once again, Lord, we
believe that you desire to operate in the gifts
and you do that through the Holy Spirit and we
can operate in these gifts as the Holy Spirit
guides us, directs us, leads us and distributes
these gifts. I'll thank you for it in advance
and give you praise. Heavenly Father, help us
with the upcoming podcasts as we go a little
more in depth on each one of these, Lord, to
help us to study it, to be able to reveal it
and explain it, Father, that your name will be
glorified and you'll be lifted up. So I ask for
these things now in the precious name of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, I'm
going to have to wrap this podcast up because
we try to keep them all under 30 minutes, and
I just have a couple comments to make before
we move on. If you'd like to know more about
Quality Christian Living, that's the name of
our podcast, you can go to my webpage at davidcfriendauthor
.com and when you go there, your front page that
pops up, you'll see a link to these podcasts.
Now this is podcast number 340, so obviously
we've done a few of them. There's a lot of topics
we've covered, anywhere from finances to spiritual
issues to even help for veterans and issues dealing
with miracles and how to see those happen in
our lives and it's just a lot of stuff we've
as the Holy Spirit has led us and I pray that
you might want to listen to those they're all
available all 340 of them all you have to do
is tune in to them and listen to them we even
had a series we did on finding your purpose in
life and I believe the Lord blessed that one
so I would encourage you to do that and if you'd
like to subscribe to my podcast you can do that
by going to cpnshows .com or or wherever you
listen to your podcast well we're going to continue
on this series on the Holy Spirit I'm not totally
sure what the next one is going to be at probably
will deal with wisdom and knowledge, you know,
but then again I've been dealing with whether
I should get into tongues, interpretation of
tongues, so just let me have a little time to
focus on that before I go to next week's podcast
which will be coming up like we do one every
single week and just listen for them and we'll
cover every one of the gifts as the Holy Spirit
leads us and guides and directs us. Well I want
to thank you for listening. Now if you enjoyed
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to you. So I want to thank you for listening
in today. I'm thankful that you've been a part
of the Quality Christian Living podcast and this
series on the Holy Spirit. You know, when you
talk about the Holy Spirit there's so much to
talk about and you can go on and on and on and
just literally you can just convert the whole
podcast over just talking about the Holy Spirit
and not have to handle any other topics or any
other subjects and I just don't feel that I'm
supposed to do that at this time and but I do
believe that this teaching is going to open up
hearts I've had people already tell me that they've
been filled with the Holy Spirit since they've
been listening to the teachings on the Holy Spirit
that they've they've their fair their prayer
time Their faith is just increasing and growing
because that's what the Holy Spirit does when
he works with us and he ministers to us and through
us to others. Our faith is growing and exploding
because the Holy Spirit wants us to have great
faith. and not just kind of like a little tiny
faith or a little touch of it. He wants us to
have great faith and I think we can receive that
and we will receive that as we seek the Holy
Spirit in His direction and the things that He
desires for our lives. So I'm going to close
this right now with a blessing and just want
to thank you so much for being a part of Quality
Christian Living. Now I pray that the Lord will
bless you and keep you. and that his face shall
shine upon you, and that he'll be gracious to
you and that he'll give you peace. And may you
prosper and be in good health even as your soul
prospers. So, until next time. May God richly
bless you. We're going to be on this series now
about the Holy Spirit until the Holy Spirit tells
me you're done. I can see another 10 or 15 maybe
or more podcasts at least the topics because
we have once we get through the gifts of the
Spirit I want to talk about the fruit of the
Spirit because I think a lot of people don't
realize that the Holy Spirit is there to give
us the gifts of love and of love and joy and
peace and patience and goodness and kindness
and gentleness and self -control. He wants to
help us with that and he's the one that brings
the fruit through the Spirit into our lives,
which is really our gifts from the Holy Spirit.
If you want more joy in your life, and you want
more peace in your life, and you want more faith
in your life, then stay with us on this series
as we continue to talk about the Holy Spirit.
Once again, I want to thank you for listening
to Quality Christian Living. I am your host David
Friend. This has been podcast number 340, dealing
with the nine power gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks again for listening. See you next time.