Life’s Not Fair
Today’s reading: I Timothy 3, 4, 5, Proverbs 23 I Timothy 5:24-25 (NKJV) 24 Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow
There are nine gifts of the Spirit, and there are three categories of these gifts. In the last blog we studied the three revelation gifts: the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, and discerning of spirits. In this blog we will study the three power gifts: faith, gifts of healings, and the working of miracles.
“For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues,”(1 Corinthians 12:8-10).
THE POWER GIFTS
This gift of faith is not the same thing as faith that comes by hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). This is a gift that temporarily removes all doubt and fear from your mind. It almost always works in conjunction with the working of miracles and sometimes with gifts of healings. It is also the gift that is predominantly involved in raising people from the dead. I am convinced this was the gift working in Daniel that allowed him to sleep with his hungry lion friends and not be harmed. I call it the gift that transforms Clark Kent into Superman and the normal Christian into a miracle worker.
When I was in Bible college I would normally spend 15-20 minutes praying in my car before going into my first class. One morning while praying and meditating on the Word before class, I felt an overwhelming sense of confidence come over me. I felt like I was invincible. All doubt, self-consciousness, and fear instantly seemed to be sucked out of my mind. I wondered for a bit what I did to warrant this amazing sense of confidence and victory. All I knew was I wanted to find someone who needed a miracle or healing and watch God do the works of Jesus through me.
As I entered my first class that morning, I sat in the second row. I noticed a man sitting in front of me in his fifties who looked grey and ashen in color. While I was thinking of asking him if I could pray for him, he stood up from his seat, bent over, and fell to the floor. I didn’t think twice. I leapt over the table in front of me and laid my hands on him and commanded resurrection life into him and death to leave him. His eyes had rolled back in his head, but as soon as I prayed for him, he came to. Someone called 911, so an ambulance came to take him to the hospital.
But he was fine, awake, and smiling, giving us the “thumbs up” sign as he left. He reported back to us the next day they ran tests on him at the hospital and he had signs of having a heart attack. But all his vital signs were normal and they released him from the hospital early the next morning! After I prayed for him that morning, all that overwhelming sense of confidence and invincibility left me. Superman turned back into Clark Kent. I wondered if I had done something wrong. What the Lord showed me was that was the gift of faith working through me that day to produce a healing miracle in my fellow student.
Understanding how the gift of faith manifests in me has helped me cooperate with it whenever that gift is needed. I asked the Lord to show me that gift operating in the New Testament. He said it happened when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. It also happened in Acts 3 when the man lame from birth was healed. He told me Peter and John had passed by this lame man many days, and he was in the same condition as the day before. But this day something was different. The “something different” was the gift of faith. The Lord told me to look at verse 4 where it says, “And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, ‘Look at us.’”
The Lord showed me the “ fixing his eyes” on this lame man indicated the complete confidence and focus the gift of faith gave to Peter at that moment. And of course this lame man leapt, walked, and praised God. The gift of faith in Peter produced a miracle in this man. And the gift of faith working through you will produce miracles in others.
This gift many times works in conjunction with the word of wisdom, the word of knowledge, or the gift of faith. Naaman the leper was healed by a combination of the word of wisdom and a gift of healing from the prophet Elisha:
And Elisha sent a messenger to him [Naaman], saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean” (2 Kings 5:10).
Jesus operated in the gift of the word of wisdom and the gift of healing together when He told the ten lepers to “Go, show yourselves to the priests” (Luke 17:14) and when He told the blind man to “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (John 9:7). Many healing evangelists operate in the word of knowledge in combination with the gifts of healings. I have observed Kathryn Kuhlman and Benny Hinn call out by the word of knowledge various ailments the Lord was healing and seeing scores of people healed. I have seen many healings through my own ministry through the word of knowledge and then the gifts of healings are released.
Sometimes the Lord assigns a particular gift of healing to a ministry and they will see many people healed in one or two specific kinds of sicknesses or ailments. For example, Acts 8:7 says through Philip’s ministry many demon-possessed, paralyzed, and lame were healed. God is not limited and His healing power is available to everyone. But He does have specialists who see more results in particular kinds of sickness and disease than others. Especially when it involves gifts of healings.
Jesus performed many miracles. His first miracle was when He turned the water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:11). Another of His miracles was multiplying the loaves and fishes recorded in John chapter 6. Another powerful miracle of His was raising Lazarus from the dead in John chapter 11. Also, the book of Acts is filled with miracles the early church performed, including many miracles of healing and raising people from the dead.
There is an important thing to note about miracles, whether they are done by Jesus or His disciples, including you and me. A miracle usually starts by someone hearing God and they almost always involve others in the process.
“Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (Galatians 3:5)
THE VOCAL GIFTS
When many people hear the word “prophecy,” they connect it to either end-time events or the function of the word of wisdom. Though prophecy can contain revelation such as a word of wisdom or word of knowledge, the real function of this gift is described in the following verse:
“But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men” (1 Corinthians 14:3).
The purpose of prophecy is to edify or encourage, exhort or call near to God, and to comfort others. A good example of prophecy is the words Elizabeth spoke over Mary when Mary came to her house after her visitation by the angel Gabriel.
And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord” (Luke 1:41-45).
This prophecy did include revelation that was present—Mary was pregnant with Jesus the Messiah—and future—there will be a fulfillment of these things the Lord told you. But this was certainly a gift of prophecy because of the great confirmation and encouragement it brought to Mary.
There are three different levels or uses of tongues according to the Word:
The latter two uses of tongues come under the category of the gift of different kinds of tongues while the first use of tongues does not.
Paul makes a distinction between the use of tongues in his personal life that are not necessary to be interpreted and tongues given out as a message in church that must be interpreted.
“I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue,” (1 Corinthians 14:18-19).
This gift of interpretation of tongues is equivalent to prophecy when a message in tongues is given publicly and this gift is used to share the intended meaning of the tongue given out publicly (1 Corinthians 14:5). I will share much more about these vocal gifts in the next chapter, Order in the House.
Adapted from Greg Mohr’s Book, Flowing in the Supernatural
Watch Pastor Greg’s television series on Living a Supernatural Life to learn more.
Today’s reading: I Timothy 3, 4, 5, Proverbs 23 I Timothy 5:24-25 (NKJV) 24 Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow
Today’s reading: Luke 9, 10, 11, Proverbs 22 Lk. 10:38-42 38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed
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